Luxury Living & Education Special Sections Inside Luxury Living
A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 11
November 2016
NOVEMBER 2016
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Fit for the Holidays
Asia
North Korea’s Belligerence Fast-Tracks Missile Defense System
t
Experts Offer Tips to Stay
W
in Shape During Season
of Splurging t BY STEPHANIE
KANOWITZ
ell, it’s here: the season of consuming — and I don’t just mean gift ing. It’s that time of giving and receivyear when we let everything go a little bit, including With all the holiday treats our waistlines. tempting us in the offi ourselves, right? (I’m ce and at home, we can looking at you, pumpkin hardly blame spice latte, latkes and Christmas cookies!)
But we don’t have to wait for New Year’s Day to resolve have a healthier holiday to season. To find out how to make better choices and handle indulgences now, we asked local fitness experts for tips.
PUERTO RICO
CRYSTAL HINNANT INSTRUCTOR AT FLYWHEEL SPORTS CITYCENTERDC AND DUPONT LOCATIONS
Q: What does a typical day’s menu look like for you? A: I’m kind of a creature of habit. I get up at 4:15 I teach a 6 a.m. class in every day. Dupont, and I don’t eat anything before that class. I teach and then I come home, and I usually try to have something pretty clean, high in protein — if have time, scrambled eggs and fruit are not a big fan of just the whites.my go-to. I eat the whole egg. I’m If I’m running late, usually some SEE FITNESS t PAGE 20
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Faced with a relentless barrage of North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests, the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system to protect South Korea has been set on a fast track despite vocal Chinese opposition and threats of economic retaliation. / PAGE 6
United States
Obama’s Immigration Record a Mix of High Deportations, Dreams Donald Trump’s grandiose pledge to build a wall with Mexico stole the show this election season. But looking back at President Obama’s immigration policies, his legacy is decidedly mixed, with a record number of deportations standing in stark contrast to his efforts to protect so-called Dreamers and other groups of immigrants. / PAGE 8
Culture
Women’s Art Through A Woman’s Perspective “NO MAN’S LAND” explores the art-making process and interprets the female body through women’s eyes. / PAGE 34
THE OTHER ELECTION HÉCTOR FERRER pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party
Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis has faded from the headlines, but it’s still very much front and center for islanders as they head to the polls on Nov. 8 — not to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, but to choose their governor and resident commissioner in Congress — who they hope can help the U.S. territory stave off a dizzying avalanche of crises, from a 45 percent poverty rate and rising crime to unemployment and the alarming spread of Zika. / PAGE 9
JENNIFFER GONZÁLEZ pro-statehood New Progressive Party
People of World Influence
Diplomatic Spouses
Western Sahara Powder Keg Heats Up
Argentine Actress Takes on New Role
The Polisario Front and Moroccan forces are separated by 100 meters in the Western Sahara and are the closest to returning to war over the disputed territory since a 1991 U.N.-mandated ceasefire, according to the Polisario’s envoy in D.C. / PAGE 13
Carla Peterson may be new to diplomacy, but she’s got the chops to act the part. An acclaimed actress in Argentina, she’s taking on a lower profile in D.C. during her husband’s posting. / PAGE 35
For 35 years, we have supported women from developing countries in their pursuit of higher education. Our organization draws inspiration from Margaret McNamara, and her vision of education and gender equality. Margaret used KHU LQĚXHQFH DV ZLIH RI 5REHUW 0F1DPDUD WKH :RUOG %DQN V ĚŹIWK
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Contents
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
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NEWS
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Around the world, whether in the U.S., Germany or Japan, the holidays pack on the pounds.
Diplomats Against Trump Over 200 ex-U.S. diplomats trash Trump and endorse Clinton in an unprecedented letter.
6 The Korea Conundrum A U.S. missile defense system to repel North Korea ignites a war of words with China. 8
Obama’s Immigration Legacy Will the 44th president be remembered as the “deporter in chief ” or a dreamer?
9 Cover Profile: Puerto rico As Puerto Rico’s economy melts down, the race for resident commissioner heats up.
13 War over Western Sahara? The Polisario Front’s envoy says his group is on the precipice of war with Morocco.
Medical
LUXURY LIVING 19
Holiday Glut Experts offer tips to stay in shape during the season of splurging.
22
diplomatic Spouses An acclaimed Argentine actress embraces a low profile during her husband’s posting.
36
Canadian Sanctuary “North is Freedom” spotlights the descendants of African Americans who fled to Canada.
37
Irish Love Song
“Once” is a lyrical ode to an unconventional boy-meets-girl romance.
Long-Awaited Family Reunion
A local real estate director sees his Congolese family after 17 years.
38
Dining As the leaves change, so does Washington’s ever-evolving restaurant scene.
EDUCATION 26
Medicine from Afar
Universities are propelling the explosive growth of telemedicine.
15
Great Global Refugee Letdown The U.N. lauded its “breakthrough” declaration on refugees, but will it have teeth?
CULTURE
16
34
Magnitude of Small Arms The U.S. has spent billions funneling guns to the Middle East since 9/11.
35
No Boys Allowed Women artists explore the female body and process of art in “NO MAN’S LAND.”
REGULARS 39 Cinema Listing 40 Events Listing 42 Diplomatic Spotlight 45 World Holidays 46 Classifieds 47 Real Estate Classifieds THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016 | 3
WD | United States
Breaking Protocol Over 200 Ex-U.S. Diplomats Trash Trump, Endorse Clinton in Unusual Letter by Larry Luxner
C
areer diplomats make it their business to stay out of politics, but the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency has galvanized an unprecedented backlash among otherwise neutral, bipartisan ambassadors. As Syria’s destruction continues unabated, North Korea rattles its nuclear sabers and Washington-Moscow tensions reach their highest level since the end of the Cold War, the last thing the United States needs is an “entirely unqualified” reality TV star manning the White House. That’s the sentiment of 220 retired U.S. ambassadors and other diplomats who have gone public for the first time in their professional lives — by openly endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. What makes their letter particularly damning is that 125 of these 220 were appointed to their posts by Republican presidents. The letter, simply titled “Career Ambassadors and State Department Officials for Clinton-Kaine,” was first published Sept. 21 and signed by 75 people. Since then, a slew of leading Republicans have bailed on Trump, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who on Oct. 8 wrote on her Facebook page that, “Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw. As a Republican, I hope to support someone who has the dignity and stature to run for the highest office in the greatest democracy on earth.” According to the open letter, “Very simply, this election is different from any election we can recall. One of the candidates — Donald J. Trump — is entirely unqualified to serve as President and Commander-in-Chief. He is ignorant of the complex nature of the challenges facing our country, from Russia to China to ISIS [Islamic State] to nuclear proliferation to refugees to drugs, but he has expressed no interest in being educated.” The letter added that Trump “has expressed the most ignorant stereotypes of [foreign] countries; has inflamed their people; and has insulted our allies and comforted our enemies.” James Keith, who served as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2010, was one of the organizers of this effort, along with Nelson Cunningham, president and co-founder of McLarty Associates, a Washingtonbased global consulting firm. “Virtually everyone who signed was motivated to endorse anyone in a presidential race for the first time by the sense that we had to do everything
4 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
Photo: Gage Skidmore
“
Virtually everyone who signed was motivated to endorse anyone in a presidential race for the first time by the sense that we had to do everything possible to prevent Donald Trump from winning. James Keith former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia and senior director at McLarty Associates
possible to prevent Donald Trump from winning,” Keith told The Diplomat by phone from Taiwan. “During our careers, none of us would ever have come out using our title as ambassador, since one cannot use one’s office as a means of promoting one candidate or another.” Keith, who directed China affairs at the National Security Council for President Bill Clinton and was deputy assistant secretary for China under George W. Bush, said that while he doesn’t expect the letter to change the minds of die-hard Trump fans, it may sway undecided voters who care about foreign policy. “I spent a huge part of my 30-year career on nuclear nonproliferation issues,” he said. “To throw away the work the world has done would be a huge mistake. To suggest that South Korea and Japan should become nuclear states in order to carry their own weight shows not only ignorance
”
of facts on the ground but a complete lack of awareness of the serious effects these statements have.” Carey Cavanaugh, a career Foreign Service officer who helped establish the U.S. Embassy in Georgia and is a specialist in Caucasus and Eastern European issues, said that until now, he has never written or signed such a letter. “I don’t sign petitions. In fact, it’s in the DNA of Foreign Service officers that you’re hired with the assumption you won’t be political that way,” said Cavanaugh, now a professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. “Yet when I was approached about the letter and given a draft of it and asked if I would be willing to sign, I decided I would the more I read it.” Cavanaugh said it was a “blind” letter, meaning that no one knew who
A podium stands ready for Donald Trump at a campaign rally for the Republican presidential candidate at South Point Arena in Las Vegas.
else had signed it at that point. But now its signatories are well-known, and they include such U.S. foreign policy luminaries as Tom Pickering, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan; Ryan Crocker, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon; Marc Grossman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to Greece and NATO; and Morton Abramowitz, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Thailand. “The list just goes on and on,” said Cavanaugh, noting that once former diplomats saw who else had signed, they became emboldened to add their own signatures. “All of us are career diplomats — no political appointees. There may be a few who were hoping to work in the next administration, but people are very much speaking their conscience.” Cavanaugh said two things are driving the petition: Trump’s “total lack of understanding of the complexity of foreign policy” — whether it’s the Middle East, China, Russia or nuclear proliferation — and his condescending, know-it-all attitude. “You can run for president and be
and continue his scorched-earth tactics. So if Trump wins the presidency, would he turn the United States into a dictatorship? The idea isn’t that far-fetched, says Laura Kennedy, who from 2001 to 2003 was U.S. ambassador to one of the world’s most oppressive regimes: Turkmenistan. “The comments he has made expressing admiration for dictators around the world — including North Korea and Russia’s [Vladimir] Putin — are just bizarre,” said Kennedy, who was appointed to Turkmenistan by George W. Bush and served at U.S. embassies in Moscow, Ankara, Yerevan and Ashgabat. “The horror people have felt at the prospect of Trump as president is very real and visceral. It’s not just his ignorance; it’s recklessness and a complete lack of understanding of the value of our alliances around the world. It casts us back into the Middle Ages.” She added: “How the heck do you go into Country X and stress the importance of having a free and fair election when the candidate of the party of [Abraham] Lincoln is promising to jail his opponent if elected?” Kennedy, an expert on nuclear nonproliferation issues (from 2010 to 2013, she was ambassador to the multilateral disarmament talks in Geneva), is particularly disturbed with Trump’s comments regarding nuclear weapons and the supposed “irrelevance” of NATO. “When I first heard those comments, I was so startled. I thought this was being extraordinarily reckless. But his basic lack of information is mind-boggling,” she lamented. “In my opinion, he has already done damage to our standing in the world.” Kennedy recalled her recent participation
at a conference in Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic that has just been admitted as the 29th member of NATO. “Here they are on the verge of joining NATO and what are they hearing? Donald Trump saying that the alliance is obsolete, and treating it as a business proposition. And there are other nations, particularly in Eastern Europe, that must be horrified by this.” Keith, the petition’s co-organizer, said he’s encouraged by the fact that Trump’s standing in pre-election polls has fallen significantly since the release of a 2005 videotape alluding to sexually aggressive and obscene behavior — but now, he said, is not the time to let up the pressure. “Trump just tunes out a lot of what they hear, but people do take seriously the notion
of the president as commander-in-chief,” he told us. “We may not be military, but in our own way we work on the front lines around the world, whether in diplomacy or nuclear issues. I like to think that our specific focus on his fitness as commander-in-chief might have some resonance.” WD Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
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a good president without understanding all the policy. But Trump is unwilling to pay attention to the advice of others. You can’t possibly know more about ISIS than all the generals who have spent years studying the Middle East,” he said. Another example, said Cavanaugh, surfaced during the presidential debates. “Trump brought up the issue of our aging B-52s,” he said. “But he seemed totally unaware that the U.S. has just embarked on a $1 trillion nuclear weapons modernization program. That was part of the arrangement the Obama administration had to agree on with the Republican-controlled Senate to get the new START [Arms Reduction] Treaty with Russia.” Trump’s camp dismissed the letter as a useless stunt by “a bunch of career overseas bureaucrats” under whom “the world has become a more dangerous place on their watch.” Since the letter’s release, Trump’s campaign has been rocked by allegations that the candidate forcibly groped several women and bragged about being able to sexually assault women because he is famous. The fallout, however, hasn’t tempered his vitriol. As if preparing for his imminent defeat, the real estate billionaire has issued dire warnings that the election is likely to be rigged and urged his supporters to monitor polling places for fraud. That has led to concerns that if he loses, Trump would foment an uprising that could threaten the bedrock principle of U.S. democracy — the peaceful transfer of power from one elected president to the other. Conversely, if he is elected, the Republican firebrand has said he would jail his opponent
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WD | Asia
The Korea Conundrum Proposed THAAD Missile Defense System Ignites War of Words with China by Brendan L. Smith
F
aced with North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile tests, the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system to protect South Korea has been set on a fast track despite vocal Chinese opposition and threats of economic retaliation. The United States will deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in South Korea on “an accelerated basis” and “as soon as possible,” said Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, at a Sept. 27 congressional hearing. The North Korean regime conducted its fifth nuclear test — its most powerful to date — on Sept. 7 ahead of the 68th anniversary of the country’s founding, just six months after the U.N. Security Council passed yet another round of strict international sanctions that still haven’t deterred North Korea from aggressively expanding its nuclear program. The U.S. has struggled to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions over the last two decades. President Obama relied on a policy of “strategic patience,” pressuring the North Korean regime through sanctions and the interdiction of arms shipments while trying to persuade China to rein in its reclusive neighbor. Although China’s relations with Kim Jong-un, the North’s unpredictable young dictator, have been frosty, Beijing fears that a collapse of the regime would send a flood of poor refugees across its borders while positioning a major U.S. ally on its doorstep if the two Koreas reunite. With the apparent failure of diplomatic negotiations and sanctions, some experts say the best option to prevent North Korea from threatening the region — and beyond, if it engineers a long-range nuclear warhead capable of reaching the continental U.S. — is to bolster South Korea’s missile defense system.
THAAD Backlash South Korea and the U.S. announced in July that THAAD would be installed to block a possible missile strike from North Korea, even though China (along with Russia) opposes the system and says it would spark an arms race in the region. Promotional events in China by some popular K-pop bands and South Korean TV stars were abruptly canceled after the announcement. China also canceled the license of a visa agency serving South Koreans, and Chinese officials and state-run 6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
Photo: Missile Defense Agency
Two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors are launched during a successful intercept test on Sept. 10, 2013, in the western Pacific.
“
Clearly, THAAD has touched a nerve. The Chinese insist that it could reach into Chinese territorial air space while the U.S. insists that it will not.
”
Charles Armstrong, Korean studies professor at Columbia University
media condemned THAAD. THAAD would be a significant expansion of South Korean defenses beyond the existing short-range Patriot missile batteries that aren’t designed to hit high-altitude targets. A U.S. Missile Defense Agency video released last year showed truck-mounted THAAD rockets successfully shooting down two ballistic missiles in mid-flight. While THAAD is a defensive system, China sees a more dire threat from the United States, claiming THAAD’s powerful radar could be reengineered to spy on Chinese military bases or shoot down missiles from China, thus upending the balance of power in the region. “China has been extremely vocal about their opposition to THAAD,” said Charles Armstrong, a Korean studies professor at Columbia University and former Wilson Center fellow. “Clearly, THAAD has touched a nerve. The Chinese insist that it could reach into Chinese territorial
air space while the U.S. insists that it will not.” Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, had enjoyed somewhat improved relations in recent years, but by embracing THAAD, Seoul clearly cemented its military alliance with Washington. Some South Korean officials fear angering China, which is their largest trading partner despite a rocky relationship. However, the threat of economic retaliation may be limited and not hurt long-term ties once China realizes the system will be deployed anyway, Armstrong told The Diplomat. U.S. officials have been resolute that THAAD will be deployed, which also would protect U.S. military installations in South Korea (the country is home to nearly 30,000 U.S. troops). Moreover, South Korea is China’s third-largest trading partner so wide-scale economic retaliation isn’t in either country’s best interests. The diplomatic row may soon
be overshadowed by U.N. negotiations over more stringent sanctions against North Korea for its latest underground nuclear test and a plethora of ballistic missile tests. National polls have shown a majority of South Koreans support THAAD, and there hasn’t been significant political opposition. The most vocal protests have occurred in southeastern Seongju county where THAAD will be installed, prompted by environmental concerns and fears that THAAD sites will be the first targets in a North Korean missile strike. Approximately 900 people shaved their heads to protest THAAD in August. A White House petition seeking to rescind the THAAD deployment has been signed by more than 107,000 people. (In 2013, the U.S. installed THAAD batteries in Guam to protect the Pacific region and numerous military installations on that tiny but strategic island.) The Seongju protests aside, the most vociferous opposition comes from China. Yet Beijing is in a bind because U.S. officials argue that THAAD wouldn’t be needed if China did more to rein in North Korea and step up its enforcement of international sanctions, said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. North Korea receives 90 percent of its food and fuel imports from China, he noted. “China is the lifeline for North
Korea to the outside world,” Snyder told The Diplomat. “China has leverage economically over North Korea, but if they use that leverage, they are concerned about collateral damage to Chinese interests.”
LimiTS Of SaNCTiONS China has publicly condemned North Korea’s nuclear tests but has provided lukewarm support for international sanctions. The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 2270 last March, two months after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test violated previous sanctions. That resolution expanded required inspections of North Korean cargo ships and increased financial sanctions in hopes of choking off foreign revenue streams aiding the North Korean regime. China, North Korea’s largest trading partner, is in the most powerful position to enforce those sanctions, but it fears the North Korean regime could become even more unstable if sanctions bite too deep, Snyder said. Even though sanctions are already tight, the U.N. Security Council could still crack down on North Korean coal exports, banking avenues and wage earnings from the employment of North Korean workers overseas, efforts that are already being pursued by the U.S. and some allies. Yet even the U.S. has been hesitant to pursue more aggressive sanctions (similar to the ones slapped on Iran) by targeting banking transactions, trade and shipping in and out of North Korea. Officials fear such a move might ignite a full-blown confrontation and cause a deep rift with China because such measures would inevitably punish Chinese banks and companies. Experts say focusing on the Chinese middlemen who help the North procure materials for its weapons programs should be key to the administration’s sanctions strategy. President Obama has taken tentative steps to crack down on Chinese firms helping to prop up Kim Jong-un’s brutal regime. In late September, the U.S. sanctioned Chinese engineering firm Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co., prohibiting American companies and individuals from working with the industrial machinery wholesaler. The Justice Department also filed criminal charges against the company owner and three executives, alleging the company helped North Korea evade sanctions by working with a North Korean bank to launder money through shell companies in offshore tax havens. The Justice Department filed a separate civil suit in an effort to seize funds from 25 Chinese bank accounts allegedly used by Dandong Hongxiang and its shell companies, some of which were exposed in the Panama Papers investigation. Dandong Hongxiang has imported more than $360 million in goods from North Korea since 2011, representing 99 percent of the company’s total imports, according to a recent investigation by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the nonprofit C4ADS. Dandong Hongxiang also sold dual-use products to North Korea with potential nuclear applications, including aluminum oxide and pure aluminum ingots, the report stated. China has supported the investigation, but as Foreign Policy’s Dan de Luce writes, “It’s unclear if China’s criminal inquiry against Dandong Hongxiang represents a more aggressive tack by Beijing against companies flouting U.N. sanctions, or is merely an isolated event. But experts say China has not changed its fundamental calculus on Pyongyang — that stability on the Korean peninsula must be preserved at all costs.”
PyONGyaNG’S STraTEGy North Korea may attempt to exploit the battle over THAAD as a distraction from international sanctions. “China is drawing closer to North Korea on this issue, and it has already created a rift between China and the U.S. on how to respond to North Korea,” Armstrong said. Snyder noted that against the backdrop of Sino-U.S. tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the controversy over THAAD, Pyongyang may hope “that the United States and China will never unite to take collective action to remove the North Korean regime.” For its part, China has been urging all the players to return to the negotiating table. While some in Washington are reluctant to reward the North’s provocations with a return to diplomatic talks, Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the U.S. is ready to negotiate with Kim Jong-un, but only if he is prepared to give up his weapons arsenal. That prospect is highly unlikely as the North makes steady advances in the development of an increasingly sophisticated nuclear program. Like his grandfather and father, Kim has said that nuclear weapons form the bedrock of his country’s security — a symbol of strength and deterrence. But North Korea has its own conflicting impulses. Just a few days after its fifth nuclear test, North Korea made a rare public appeal for international humanitarian aid to help victims of the devastating Typhoon Lionrock. Flooding in the northeast part of the country killed more than 130 people, leveled towns and displaced more than 100,000 residents. North Korea has a history of blaming its economic woes on natural disasters, and South Korea has refused to offer aid for typhoon victims because of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests, Armstrong said. The Red Cross and the U.N. World Food Program have provided emergency food rations, but fundraising efforts haven’t gained much traction because North Korea is an international pariah. The country is susceptible to natural disasters in part because of its rudimentary infrastructure, rampant poverty and global isolation. But the Kim family dynasty has shown little regard for the welfare of its 2.5 million people, who have been subjected to decades of mass starvation and torture. If the regime has calculated that nukes are necessary for its survival, America’s options may be limited, Snyder wrote in CFR’s “Asia Unbound” blog. “[I]f nuclear weapons development has truly become a central tool by which the Kim family justifies the perpetuation of its rule domestically, denuclearization is possible only as a product of regime change; the only alternative to regime change is acquiescence to North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. Such is the strategic choice that North Korea’s current course poses to the United States and its allies,” he warned. U.S. officials hope that THAAD, which could be operational by the end of 2017, might be a middle ground between those two doomsday scenarios. Despite the lingering debate over the missile-defense system, U.S. officials have said its deployment is off the table in any discussions of possible new U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Still, the diplomatic controversy and its possible future ramifications are circling in the background, Armstrong said. “It’s mostly an argument about the real intention of THAAD and the effect of that on North Korea’s behavior,” he said. WD Brendan L. Smith (www.brendanlsmith.com) is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
in the wake of repeated North korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests, the U.S. has said it will fast-track the deployment of its Terminal high altitude area Defense (ThaaD) missile defense system in South korea, prompting worries in China that the system will alter the balance of power in the region.
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WD | United States
Immigration Legacy Will 44th President Be Remembered as Deporter in Chief or Dreamer? by Justin Salhani
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onald Trump’s vow to build a wall with Mexico brought immigration front and center during the 2016 presidential election and may well go down as one of the more grandiose pledges made on the campaign trail. Trump largely ran on a platform that included promising unprecedented numbers of deportations while his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, would lay out the welcome mat for people whom the Republican billionaire described as drug-runners, rapists and criminals. “And some, I assume, are good people,” he said (also see “Immigration Anchors GOP Candidate’s Foreign Policy Platform“ in the October 2016 issue). “We will terminate the Obama administration’s deadly non-enforcement policies that allow thousands of criminal aliens to freely roam our streets,” Trump said in August during a Phoenix-based speech. The real estate mogul argues that Clinton’s immigration policies will largely be an extension of those crafted by the Obama administration. Despite Obama’s support for amnesty of certain illegal immigrants, particularly those brought here as children who fall under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, the truth is that Obama has a very complicated record on immigration and deportation. In fact, in a recent interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, Trump praised Obama for getting “tremendous numbers of people out of the country.” During his first four years in office, Obama did just that, overseeing a steady rise in deportations that peaked in fiscal 2012, when more than 400,000 people were deported, according to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In 2014, Obama was labeled the “deporter in chief ” by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who said that Obama had deported more illegal immigrants than any other recent president. At the same time, however, Obama was trying to pass legislation that would revamp the immigration system and allow a framework for undocumented workers to acquire legal status, while beefing up border security. Among other things, the legislation would’ve provided some of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. a legal pathway to citizenship — among them, the parents of American citizens or legal resident children who have lived in the U.S. for more than five years — if they registered with the government, underwent background checks and paid back taxes. It also would’ve doubled the number of border agents and strengthened border surveillance; expanded verification measures to prevent employers from hiring illegal workers; and adopted a merit-based immigration system that weighs professional skills, family relations and work history in the U.S. But the bill, which passed the Senate in 2013, died in the House, and Obama began using executive orders as a tool to change immigration policies in the country. Violent offenders became a target for deportation, as Obama sought to prioritize limited resources. “President Obama’s approach to immigration enforcement is really two very different approaches: one for those caught near the border, the other for immigrants found living illegally in the interior,” explained
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Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
President Barack Obama reacts to a comment during a meeting with members of Congress for a roundtable discussion on immigration reform in June 2009.
NPR’s Scott Horsley in an Aug. 31 article. “How long an immigrant has been here makes a difference as well. Like others before it, the Obama administration says it doesn’t have the resources or the desire to deport millions of immigrants whose only crime was entering the country illegally. So, it has focused its enforcement efforts on particular targets: namely those caught near the border, those who’ve committed crimes and those who appear to have arrived in 2014 or later.” As a result, total deportations went down. Recent reports show that deportation figures could hit a 10year low. Deportations for this fiscal year are expected to be lower than last year’s numbers (235,413), which were the lowest since 2006. “While total deportations decreased, the proportion of criminal aliens as a percentage of removals increased from 31 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2015,” the Hill’s Rafael Bernal reported on Aug. 31. Despite the scale-back, the title of “deporter in chief ” could still be applied to the 44th president and former senator from Illinois. During Obama’s first six years in office, he deported more people than the Bush administration was able to in eight. “Between 2009 and 2015 his administration has removed more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders, which doesn’t include the number of people who ‘self-deported’ or were turned away and/or returned to their home country at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Serena Marshall of ABC News reported in August. Those figures mean Obama has deported more people than any other American president in history. “Obama’s immigration record was mixed,” Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, told us via email. “In his second term, he tried hard to achieve serious reform and many were optimistic,
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The Obama administration has had much more success in deporting and stopping migrants from entering the U.S. than with dealing with the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. Michael Shifter president of the Inter-American Dialogue
chiefly because of the huge role of Latinos in the 2012 election. But in the end he didn’t make progress and was unable to break the political stalemate with Congress on this issue. “Many immigration reform advocates criticized Obama for waiting until the second term and not pursuing this goal when he enjoyed a congressional majority. They were also disappointed that a president with a progressive agenda emphasized law enforcement and deported more immigrants than any of his predecessors,” Shifter added. “He will also be remembered for significantly beefing up border security measures.” Faye Hipsman, a policy analyst and California program coordinator with the Migration Policy Institute, agrees that the record number of deportations under Obama will color his legacy. “Immigration will always be a difficult part of President Obama’s legacy,” she told The Diplomat. “No president has carried out more deportations or dedicated more resources and efforts to immigration See Immigr at ion • page 12
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WD | Cover Profile
Puerto Rico’s Meltdown As Economy Crumbles, Race for D.C. Resident Commissioner Heats Up by Larry Luxner
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AN JUAN — It’s another 85-degree afternoon in Old San Juan, and dozens of cruise ship passengers stroll along the waterfront, casually making their way toward Pier 4, where the 110,000-ton Carnival Glory awaits them. An elderly man walks by, selling coco, piña and parcha-flavored ice cream to tourists, while a local entertainer wrapped in the red, white and blue Puerto Rican flag sings “Stand By Me” in front of a kiosk selling Puerto Rico-themed baseball caps, license plates and necklaces. The musician, known only as “El Gallo de San Juan,” has been here for 20 years, arriving every morning at 8 a.m. and walking up and down the entire waterfront with his songs and trinkets. “The people are buying,” he says. “They don’t spend a lot. They buy cheap things, but they’re buying.” Directly across the street is the Hacienda, Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department, which chafes under the weight of the island’s $68 billion budget deficit. But the tourists — clad mostly in shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops — don’t seem to care, any more than they care about the Zika epidemic that’s frightened so many islanders or the staggering brain drain that has seen hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans flee for the U.S. mainland in the wake of economic stagnancy. If anything, tourism is booming. “The economy here is good, especially the underground economy,” said vendor Karem Quintana, who drives here each morning from the northern coastal town of Rio Grande to offer homemade jewelry to cruise ship tourists. “People are selling all kinds of things — bags, perfumes, even drugs. All the malls are full. You can go to Walmart right now and there’ll be a big line.” Quintana, who’s been peddling her necklaces, pendants, bracelets and earrings here for 13 years, says she averages $800 a day; some days when lots of cruise ships are in port, she makes up to $1,200. “We don’t take food stamps, and we make enough money to send my daughter to a private school,” she told us proudly. “Here, the bad thing is the government. They say we’re bankrupt and people are leaving. But I think they’re really saying that so the U.S. will give us more money.”
Cascading Crisis Money is at the heart of the schism between Washington and Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth in the Caribbean that’s home to 3.5 million people
Residents of San Juan joyously wave Puerto Rican flags in celebration of tennis champion Monica Puig, winner of the island’s first-ever gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo: Larry Luxner
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Being the sole representative from the island without voting rights in Congress, we should use the resident commissioner’s office as an ambassador for economic development — not only with foreign embassies in Washington but also with programs and agencies at the federal level so we can help the island get out of its fiscal crisis. Jenniffer González
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candidate for Puerto Rico resident commissioner of the New Progressive Party
and is saddled with a per-capita debt exceeding $15,700 — more than 10 times the average per-capita debt in the 50 states. This summer, Congress had to pass emergency legislation to keep the island from defaulting on its debt. The rescue plan, dubbed PROMESA, sets up a seven-member control board to oversee the island’s budget, stabilize its economy and facilitate debt-restructuring talks with creditors. The idea of Washington bureaucrats dictating how Puerto Rico manages its money, however, has stirred deep resentment among residents and revived calls for the U.S. territory to secede from the “colonist” mainland. There is plenty of blame to go around for Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, which many observers say is the result
of poor governance, mismanagement, an inefficient welfare system and overregulation. On the one hand, the government wracked up debt, spending far more than it was collecting (for example, in the 1990s, it created a health insurance system for the poor but never found a way to pay for it). At the same time, federal tax breaks encouraged reckless borrowing. Because Puerto Rico is not a state, its tax laws are riddled with quirks and loopholes. For decades, Puerto Rico benefited from U.S. laws that provided financial incentives to manufacturers that developed production in Puerto Rico instead of outside the United States. But Congress phased out those incentives over a 10-year period that ended in 2006, devastating the manufacturing sector and triggering a full-
blown recession. The downturn sparked a vicious cycle of people leaving the island for better job prospects, further squeezing tax revenues. More than 500,000 people have booked one-way flights from the island since 2006 — mainly bound for Texas, New York and Florida — in what has amounted to one of the largest U.S. population shifts in recent memory. To pay its bills, the Puerto Rican government took the easy way out, issuing debt in the form of municipal bonds to help cover revenue shortfalls and expenses. This debt was triple taxexempt, meaning it was exempt from federal, state and local taxes — which in turn drew opportunistic Wall Street investors. “The debt was tax-exempt for investors throughout the United States and paid higher yields than other munis, making it attractive to scores of retail bond mutual funds. Hedge funds and other risk-seeking investors also piled in as the island’s financial woes mounted,” wrote Mary Williams Walsh and Liz Moyer in a July 1 New York Times article. Puerto Rico agreed to pay certain bondholders ahead of public services, so the cash-strapped government began shutting down schools, hospitals and other public services while hiking sales taxes. Today, the island faces a dizzying avalanche of crises ranging from a 45 See Pu ert o r ic o • page 10 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016 | 9
from each other along the scenic highway leading to Old San Juan (see Q&As below and on page 11). “The resident commissioner has to be a kind of ambassador for Puerto Rico in D.C. — to sell Puerto Rico not only in tourism but in agriculture, manufacturing and medical services,” Ferrer told us. “He should be the representative of our economy.” González had something remarkably similar to say, despite her support for making Puerto Rico the 51st state. “Being the sole representative from the island without voting rights in Congress, we should use the resident commissioner’s office as an ambassador for economic development — not only with foreign embassies in Washington but also with programs and agencies at the federal level so we can help the island get out of its fiscal crisis.”
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percent poverty rate, rising crime and unemployment to the alarming spread of Zika throughout the Caribbean territory. Whether PROMESA can help Puerto Rico climb out of its prolonged funk and overhaul its sluggish economy, however, remains to be seen.
ELECTiON Day While news of Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis has faded from the headlines, it’s still very much front and center for islanders as they head to the polls this month — but not to cast their vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Indeed, while most observers in Washington focus on the highly divisive U.S. presidential elections, Nov. 8 also happens to be Election Day in Puerto Rico. Six candidates are vying to be the next governor, and four want the job of resident commissioner — the closest the Spanishspeaking island has to an ambassador in the nation’s capital. The two candidates most likely to replace current Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi as Puerto Rico’s top representative in Washington are both lawyers from San Juan: Jenniffer González of the center-right, pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish) and Héctor Ferrer of the centerleft, pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which advocates to keep the territorial status quo. González shares the PNP ticket with gubernatorial candidate Ricky Rosselló, who according to an Oct. 11 poll by the daily newspaper El Nuevo Día leads the pack
PhOTOS: Larry LUxNEr
above, banners displayed in front of the federal building in San Juan’s hato rey district attack Washington’s newly enacted fiscal control board and criticize Puerto rico’s status as a U.S. colony. at right, Cuban-born businessman manuel Cidre is running for governor of Puerto rico as an independent candidate. With 9 percent support in the polls, he’s trailing three other candidates for the job.
with 40 percent support. Ferrer is running with the PPD’s David Bernier, who has 28 percent. Also seeking the resident commissioner’s job is Hugo Rodríguez of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, whose gubernatorial candidate, María de Lourdes Santiago, has 3 percent support; and Mariana Nogales, whose candidate, Rafael Bernabe of the newly formed Working People’s Party, has only 1 percent. Two other candidates for governor, Man-
uel Cidre (9 percent) and Alexandra Lúgaro (13 percent), are running as independents and don’t have running mates at all. In late August, The Washington Diplomat interviewed both González and Ferrer at their respective offices less than a mile apart
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an Juan attorney héctor ferrer, 46, is running for Puerto rico resident commissioner on the procommonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) ticket. a member of the Puerto rico house of representatives for 12 years, he was house minority leader from 2005 to 2012 and is former president of the PPD. We recently interviewed ferrer at PPD headquarters in Puerta de Tierra. here are excerpts from our meeting: Q: Why are you running for resident commissioner? A: This is an unprecedented time in commonwealth history. as you know, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law PrOmESa [the Puerto rico Oversight, management, and Economic Stability act], which institutes a fiscal oversight board that not only works together with Puerto rico’s executive and legislative branch but also has the power to overturn laws and budget decisions that the government of Puerto rico approves. This new oversight board is nominated by republicans and Democrats, so whoever represents Puerto rico in Congress will have an important role in complying with the fiscal plan we have to adopt in order to restructure the debt, carve out expenses in government and identify both local and fed-
Q: How do you see the role of resident commissioner in Washington? A: The resident commissioner has to be a kind of ambassador for Puerto rico in D.C. — to sell Puerto rico not only in tourism but in agriculture, manufacturing and medical services. he should be the representative of our economy. Q: For years, your party has solidly stood behind Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status. Why are you now calling that into question? A: it’s been overrun by PrOmESa and the decisions of the Supreme Court, which declared unconstitutional our bankruptcy law that allowed Puerto rico to establish its own bankruptcy code. in the 21st century, how can
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Because it’s neither a state nor a foreign country, Puerto Rico often falls through the cracks. In many ways, its official status of Estado Libre Asociado (or “free associated state”) is a paradox because Puerto Rico is not a state, it’s not associated and in the opinions of thousands of Puerto Ricans, it’s not free either. The Connecticut-size island came under U.S. jurisdiction in 1898, when American troops wrested it from Spain during the Spanish-American War. That short-lived conflict also gave the United States control of both Cuba and the Philippines, though Cuba got its independence in 1902 and the Philippines in 1946. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, became a commonwealth in 1952 and has remained one ever since. The answer to the island’s fiscal woes, some people say, is a permanent solution to the island’s perennial status dilemma. “The United States needs to complete
Q: How important in general are federal tax incentives for Puerto Rico?
Q&A : héctor ferrer eral ways of stimulating the economy. The times require someone who knows how Congress and the government of Puerto rico works — someone with the capacity to communicate to Congress the needs of Puerto ricans and who understands there are different options regarding our status, someone who will respect the intentions of the Puerto rican people. So the resident commissioner’s job now has an importance that goes beyond the basic responsibilities of finding solutions to problems like health, infrastructure and federal funding.
iDENTiTy CriSiS
the most powerful country in the world — which declares itself the icon of democracy and liberty — treat the 3.5 million american citizens of Puerto rico like a colony? Q: What are the key differences between you and your principal opponent, Jenniffer González of the New Progressive Party? A: We both come from the house of representatives. She’s a former speaker, i am a former minority leader. but i believe that government is set up to help people in need. i believe in social programs and in Obamacare, that we can get parity of funds for medicare and medicaid, and that we don’t need to be a state to do it. She’s a republican, so she believes the people of Puerto rico should pay federal tax. i am against the Jones act, she’s in favor of it. and i believe we can attain economic growth with incentives approved by Congress, such as amendments to the irS tax code that allow foreign companies in Puerto rico to repatriate their profits to asia and Europe. if you change the code to classify them as domestic, they will keep the money here.
A: i’ve been in meetings with many congressmen and senators. They say that what Congress did in 1996 [phasing out tax incentives for the island] was a mistake. We lost at least 100,000 good manufacturing jobs. We lost at least three banks where the profits of these corporations were deposited. We lost a big part of the economic core of Puerto rico. Not only were these direct jobs, but 936 companies supplied other sectors — transportation, services, utilities. it was a big hit on the economy of Puerto rico that we haven’t recovered from yet. They thought the money would go back to the States, but it didn’t. it left to Singapore, ireland and elsewhere. They destroyed an american economy and gave those jobs to foreign companies. So there’s an incentive to fix what was destroyed, to bring prosperity back to Puerto rico. This is an incentive for the U.S. Treasury to get money it’s not getting right now. Q: What specifically keeps Puerto Rico’s economy from recovering? A: The Jones act forces us to pay more for products than other americans pay, because they have to be shipped on U.S.-flagged vessels. you can bring products by land from New york to florida, but not to Puerto rico. So there are serious arguments for us to be exempted from the Jones act, like the U.S. Virgin islands. One of the things PrOmESa requires is to identify federal laws that impede Puerto rico’s growth. my opponent’s ideological
vision and purpose goes ahead of the needs of the people of Puerto rico. for her, it’s more important for the people to be a state and pay federal taxes and high U.S. merchant marine fees. Q: What would you do to increase tourism’s sector of the Puerto Rican economy? A: Tourism is doing well, but i think we can do better. most tourists stay in the San Juan metro area. We haven’t done enough — neither the government nor the private sector — to expand tourism to other parts of the island. We’re 100 by 35 miles in Puerto rico, and we have everything here except snow. also, the government has to establish a plan to sell Puerto rico not only to U.S. tourists but also to the whole world. We have concentrated our tourism on the United States while our neighbors — the Dominican republic, Cuba and other Caribbean islands — have been targeting Europe and asia. Q: How do you see the U.S. presidential elections affecting Puerto Rico? A: Our real unemployment rate is 20 to 25 percent. [hillary] Clinton has already said on the Democratic platform that they will pair up federal funds for medicare and medicaid. This will help Puerto rico if we have the same cap. We would receive around $5 to $6 billion if parity is established. Then we can liberate $1.2 billion of our budget that is right now allocated to the health Department to cover insurance plans. Second, the republicans would carve out Obamacare. Democrats won’t do that. — Larry Luxner
what it started in 1898,” said Cidre. “Most Puerto Ricans love the U.S. and love their American citizenship, so they deserve better treatment. What we’re waiting for is some expression from Congress that we can decide if we want to be independent or become a state. It’s a matter of justice.” For years, being in statehood limbo benefited islanders, who receive federal aid but most of whom don’t pay federal income tax. At the same time, however, there are some disadvantages; Puerto Ricans, for example, receive lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. Moreover, today, because Puerto Rico is not a state, it cannot declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection like many cities and municipalities could. And because it is not a country, it cannot appeal for emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund. Its only lifeline is Congress. Despite longstanding calls for statehood, many doubt Congress will ever grant the territory statehood, especially now that it is mired in economic crisis. As a result, some experts think Puerto Rico will simply have to soldier through financial hardship for the next five or more years.
TraGEDy iN ThE TrOPiCS Lately, it’s become fashionable to equate the island’s fiscal meltdown with the recent Greek tragedy, in which a proud nation of 11 million inhabitants nearly got kicked out of the European Union. Yet the Greek economy might actually be in much better shape than the troubled economy of Puerto Rico to which it is often compared. Even though Greece’s April 2016 unemployment rate of 23.3 percent was twice that of the Caribbean island (11.3 percent), Greece is improving, while Puerto Rico is going in the other direction. In fact, Puerto Rico saw its economy decline by 1.6 percent in 2015, and it’s projected to shrink
Puerto rico at a glance Independence: U.S. independence Day, July 4 (1776); Puerto rico Constitution Day, July 25 (1952)
GDP per-capita (PPP) $38,000 (2015 estimate) GDP growth -1.3 percent (2015 estimate)
Location Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican republic
Unemployment 13.7 percent (2013 estimate)
Capital San Juan
Industries pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, food products, tourism
Population 3.6 million (July 2016 estimate) Ethnic groups White 75.8%, black/african american 12.4%, other 8.5% (includes american indian, alaskan Native, Native hawaiian, other Pacific islander, and others), mixed 3.3%
Population below poverty line n/a
National flag of Puerto Rico
GDP (purchasing power parity) $131.9 billion (2015 estimate)
SOUrCE: Cia WOrLD faCTbOOk
another 2 percent in both 2016 and 2017. Economist Anne Krueger of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said Puerto Rico has traditionally overestimated growth while underestimating how much the economy would shrink as a result of losing Section 936 tax breaks. “In the late 1970s, Congress, in its wisdom, exempted companies that moved their factories to Puerto Rico from U.S. corporate taxes, but the companies that took advantage of this were largely pharmaceuticals. The inversion we now hear about was nothing compared to the tax breaks companies were given for moving there,” she said, noting that those tax breaks ended in 2006. “Unless they can somehow restore growth, it doesn’t matter what you do,” said Krueger. “They’ve got to make investments in the Electric Power Authority, although they can’t right now because it’s going bankrupt. In addition, all but a little of their power is based on oil, and oil is even more expensive in Puerto Rico because of the Jones Act,” a
1917 law that requires everyone in Puerto Rico to buy goods from an American-made ship with an American crew, which in turn jacks up prices. Furthermore, the federal minimum wage — which applies in Puerto Rico — is a real deterrent to investment, and “raising taxes will just encourage more out-migration” to the U.S. mainland, Krueger said. “When you have lots of different entities within the government and no orderly procedure for sorting it out, the lawyers will have fun and keep the mess going for several years,” she warned. “The downslide will continue and get worse.”
POLiTiCS Of PrOmESa Both major candidates for resident commissioner are on record as opposing the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), which hands fiscal control of the island to a board that doesn’t answer to elected officials. Puer-
to Ricans fear this unaccountable board, or “junta” as many call it, will favor bondholders over residents, who will see their taxes rise and services slashed. Supporters say the legislation will do the opposite: restore public services over near-term debt repayments and give the island time to renegotiate its unsustainable debt load. “The two main parties are against PROMESA, but there is no real compromise to work against it,” said Nogales, one of four candidates vying for the D.C. job. “As resident commissioner, I would work to eliminate PROMESA. We have a commission to audit the debt, and its preliminary findings are that almost half the debt is unconstitutional or illegal, or has some fraud. My proposal would be to determine who is responsible and make them return the money — or even send people to jail. If we eliminated half our debt, we’d have more resources to invest in economic and social development.” Nogales, a 42-year-old single mother and attorney who is considered a longshot for the post, said that when she was offered the chance to run for resident commissioner on the Working People’s Party ticket, she was confused. “I didn’t know what a resident commissioner did,” said the family and civil lawyer, a death-penalty opponent who also specializes in separation of church and state issues. “But then I realized I could use this position to fight for human rights for Puerto Ricans on and off the island. I could start working on a human rights agenda for Congress, and in the case of Puerto Rico, of course, an immediate agenda for decolonization. We could also petition the United Nations, the Organization of American States and other groups to deal with our territorial status and request the U.S. to comply with its international obligations.”
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moving mainly to florida and Texas. all Puerto ricans have U.S. passports. if we don’t fix the situation we’ve already got here, more people will leave.
Q&A: Jenniffer González J
enniffer González, 40, is running for Puerto rico resident commissioner on the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) ticket. a graduate of both the inter-american University and the University of Puerto rico, the San Juan attorney was vice chairman of the PNP since 2008 and now chairs the republican Party of Puerto rico. We recently interviewed González at her office in San Juan’s Capitol. here are excerpts from our meeting: Q: Why are you running for resident commissioner? A: Puerto rico’s people need a strong voice to our credibility — not only in Congress but also for creditors and bondholders. i’m a former speaker of the [Puerto rican house of representatives] so i have the whole picture of what’s going on. This government broke the law by ignoring the Puerto rican Constitution regarding the processes of approving new laws and taxes, and by raising taxes on 95 occasions without making any kind of adjustment or reduction in the local budget. being the sole representative from the island without voting rights in Congress, we should use the resident commissioner’s office as an ambassador for economic development — not only with foreign embassies in Washington but also with programs
and agencies at the federal level so we can help the island get out of its fiscal crisis. Q: What makes you the best candidate for the job? A: i became a legislator at 25, was the youngest legislator in Puerto rico and at 32 became the youngest speaker of the house. There’s no other candidate for resident commissioner that has been putting out there ideas and specific proposals for economic development, to manage the health care cliff we’re going to face next year. i’m the only one who has a thick platform regarding what to do with Puerto rico at the federal level. Q: How important is Puerto Rico’s political status within the context of the island’s massive debt crisis and solutions for resolving it? A: i support statehood for Puerto rico, and i understand that Puerto rico should be included in U.S. treaties with other countries…. We should also change local laws to make businesses more profitable. my role in Washington will be a political one but also an economic one, and i will be working closely with PrOmESa [the Puerto rico Oversight, management, and Economic Stability act].
Q: Thousands of Puerto Ricans have protested PROMESA, specifically provisions that essentially give it veto power over decisions made by local legislators. How do you respond to their concerns? A: i was initially in favor of a federal board on the island. i have my concerns, but it’s already been enacted, so i will work closely to have that board taken out in five years. To do that, we should have credibility which establishes a rule of law. Q: And that’s not the case now? A: We don’t even have audited financial reports. This government failed to make them public for two years in a row. We don’t have any data. Even i, as minority leader, have to file suits against the government to see the budget and how they’re spending public money. There’s a lot of secrecy in the way the government deliberately chooses to seek bankruptcy without taking actions locally and without respecting the law. Q: What about Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection for Puerto Rico? A: We can’t use that tool if we don’t have the data. it’s a tool we can look at once we shrink the government and cut our expenses.
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Q: If Puerto Rico became a state, would it get to keep its own Olympic team?
Q: Do you agree that the dismantling of Section 936 tax breaks provoked Puerto Rico’s current economic crisis? A: No. The real reason 936 left the island was because of the treaty bill Clinton negotiated with NafTa. it was not our government’s position to get rid of those companies. Personally, i’m looking into other options, such as a temporary 20-year or 25-year neutral status, so that even if we become a state, we maintain our current territorial tax situation. We are promoting alternatives that should be workable with the task force. We know that Congress is not going to approve a corporate welfare program like Section 936. That’s not even an option. but if we were part of the U.S. mainstream economic system, we would never have had this situation. We pay our Social Security and medicare taxes but we don’t receive the same amount. There are a lot of discrepancies. Q: What is the best way to stop the flow of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. mainland? A: more than 200,000 people have left the island in the last three years; they’re
A: it’s like miss Universe. There are already precedents for countries which participate regardless of their status. it happened with hong kong. That will be a decision by the international Olympic Committee — and Puerto rico had its own franchise before becoming a commonwealth in 1952. Q: Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s current resident commissioner, lost your party’s primary earlier this year and cannot run for re-election. How would you rate his performance? A: he’s been doing a marvelous job, but without having a vote. he’s a Democrat in a republican Congress. i’m a republican, so that may change. all the polls show that [republican house Speaker] Paul ryan will stay as speaker. There’s a lot of issues we can move forward on. Q: How do you see the U.S. presidential elections affecting Puerto Rico? A: both hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are committed to resolving the island’s political status. The republican platform provides for a federal plebiscite so the people can accept or reject Puerto rico’s inclusion as a state of the union. — Larry Luxner
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Immigration CONTiNUED • PaGE 8
and border enforcement, a fact that disappoints many on the left, while others on the right maintain that his administration didn’t do enough to stop illegal immigration.” Recent comments by Trump show his deportation plan is quite similar to Obama’s. Trump said he would divide illegal immigrants into two groups — the criminals and “everybody else,” who would essentially go through the same process the Obama administration uses to grant legal status. “The first thing we’re going to do if and when I win is we’re going to get rid of all of the bad ones,” Trump said in August. “We’ve got gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country. We’re going to get them out, and the police know who they are. They’re known by law enforcement who they are. We don’t do anything. They go around killing people and hurting people, and they’re going to be out of this country so fast your head will spin. We have existing laws that allow you to do that.” This strategy is almost identical to the one used by Obama. Under his administration, ICE focused more on felons than families. Trump seemed to acknowledge Obama’s strategy in August, saying he would do “the same thing” but “perhaps with a lot more energy.” Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has vowed to revive comprehensive immigration reform if elected, but the acrimonious election — and strident anti-immigrant fervor it has unleashed — may put any such efforts on the backburner even if she does capture the White House. As much as Obama has been slammed or, conversely, praised for deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants, he has also focused his energies on protecting certain groups. He turned to his executive powers to defer deportation for those who were brought to the U.S. before the age of 16 (so-called Dreamers). He also sought to expand that reprieve with his Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which would’ve allowed up to 5 million immigrants who are the parents of U.S. citizens or green card holders to apply for work permits and remain in the country. But a deadlocked Supreme Court put DAPA in limbo after it left in place an appeals court ruling blocking the plan. “Obama’s executive order on Dreamers and other efforts were commendable initiatives to protect large numbers from risk of deportation, but much of that work got tied up in courts,” Shifter said. Some of the fluctuations in immigrant trends, however, were more the result of outside forces than concerted efforts by the president. For example, after the 2008 economic
CrEDiT: OffiCiaL WhiTE hOUSE PhOTO by PETE SOUza
President barack Obama shows the resolute Desk to a group of DrEamers, following their Oval Office meeting in which they talked about how they have benefited from the Deferred action for Childhood arrivals (DrEam) immigration reform program on feb. 4, 2015.
recession, immigration from Mexico flat-lined as fewer workers came to the U.S. looking for jobs. Over the last five years, in fact, more Mexicans have left the United States than entered it, according to the Pew Research Center. At the same time, in recent years the U.S. saw a surge in illegal immigrants fleeing gang violence and poverty in Central America, particularly unaccompanied minors. To help curb this influx, the president passed a $750 million aid ini-
tiative to reduce violence and spur economic development in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. “The Obama administration has launched a number of initiatives in Central America aimed at promoting economic and social development and alleviating the tough conditions that force people to migrate in the first place. To date, however, these policies have been limited,” Shifter said. “In sum, the Obama administration has had much more success in deporting and stopping
migrants from entering the U.S. than with dealing with the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. His efforts were well-intentioned but proved to be politically difficult.” Hipsman said Obama’s stringent deportation policies early in his presidency will likely leave a bad taste in the mouths of immigration reform advocates, but they may also see some positives. “For President Obama’s allies, his legacy is likely to be a mix of resent-
Puerto Rico CONTiNUED • PaGE 11
At a Sept. 27 panel organized by the National Taxpayers Union — a conservative, Washington-based citizen group that calls itself “the voice of America’s taxpayers” — Warren Payne, a former policy director of the House Ways and Means Committee, called PROMESA a “critical first step” toward the orderly restructuring of Puerto Rico’s debt and said that trashing Puerto Rico’s tax breaks was a mistake. “Congress ultimately threw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said, arguing that the previous tax system should be reworked to help Puerto Rico remain competitive. “Rather than fix the program, they repealed it entirely. That has created a lockout effect, so there’s a huge disincentive for U.S. companies to invest on the island. Companies rightly ask the question, ‘If I can’t get my money out, why would I invest in Puerto Rico?’” Independent candidate Cidre,
12 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOvEMbEr 2016
PhOTO: Larry LUxNEr
Cruise ship tourists from the U.S. mainland crowd a waterfront promenade in Old San Juan. Puerto rico’s fiscal crisis has had little effect on tourism, one of the few bright spots in the island’s economy.
a Cuban-born bakery executive, also broadly supports PROMESA’s goals. “If we work closely with PROMESA, we can use it not only to pay our debts but to develop Puerto Rico, in order to prepare it for a decision on whether to be independent or become a state,” said Cidre, who declined to discuss his individual status preference for the island. “Regardless of the final
decision, if we are going to be an independent country, we have to be prepared for that. And if we want to be part of the United States, we have to be prepared for that too.” Yet the resident commissioner is only a figurehead in the grand scheme of things, claims Cidre, who thinks the position itself is useless. “He doesn’t have a vote, and in many cases, he doesn’t have a
ment for his deportation practices with an appreciation for the small and large steps he took over eight years, potentially with the latter winning out,” she said. “For his critics, the legacy will be almost entirely negative, with anger focused on ineffective enforcement and immigrant-friendly policies.” From Hipsman’s perspective though, the record Obama leaves behind will be largely positive. He tried to set a pathway to amnesty for Dreamers, he challenged a harsh 2010 immigration law in Arizona and fought to pass immigration reform. He failed in some of his efforts, but Hipsman said Obama will be seen as a president who “stuck his neck out” for immigrants and his deportations were aimed at reforming the cause for the better. “President Obama has … taken many meaningful steps — both high profile and quiet — to improve the lives of immigrants and focus enforcement more narrowly,” she said. “Moreover, the impact of some of his more small-bore immigration policy changes, such as setting priorities for enforcement and introducing reforms to different legal immigration processes, will become more apparent over time.” WD Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.
voice either. So why be there?” Cidre said. “The resident commissioner position was established in 1901 because of the huge distance between Puerto Rico and the mainland. But today it doesn’t make sense. The voice of Puerto Rico in Washington is the governor.” Antonio J. Colorado, a former Puerto Rico secretary of state who is perhaps best known for his vigorous defense of Section 936, served as the island’s Washington-based resident commissioner in the early 1990s. He couldn’t disagree more. “Most of the people who run for resident commissioner do not really know what it means,” Colorado told The Diplomat. “But as resident commissioner, they consider you as a member of Congress. Your vote is very important in committees, and in some cases it can be decisive. You can then negotiate that vote for fellow members of Congress to help you in other matters. That’s the way it works in Washington.” WD Larry Luxner, news editor of The Washington Diplomat, traveled to Puerto Rico for five days last August to research this article.
WD | North Africa
Western Sahara Tinderbox Polisario Envoy Says Group Closest to War with Morocco Since 1991 by James Cullum
T
he Polisario Front and Moroccan forces are separated by 100 meters and are the closest to returning to war over the Western Sahara since a 1991 United Nations-mandated ceasefire, according to Mouloud Said, the Polisario’s representative in Washington. “Any small incident could provoke the war, so the war is not something we want but is something on the table,” Said told The Washington Diplomat in a recent interview. Rabat announced in August that it was deploying a team of security personnel and road builders to a narrow strip in Western Sahara’s Guerguerat region near Morocco’s border with Mauritania to combat criminals and drug smugglers. The Polisario cried foul, accused Morocco of violating the ceasefire by introducing armed personnel into the non-self-governing territory and positioned Polisario fighters in shouting distance from the border. The Associated Press published a confidential U.N. document in August that said Morocco violated the ceasefire by sending in armed security forces and equipment without prior notice. It also said the deployment of Polisario military personnel violated the ceasefire as well. Morocco claims the Polisario Front independence movement is the aggressor. “We launched our anti-smuggling campaign in cooperation with Mauritania, then the Polisario began sending in troops,” a Moroccan Foreign Ministry official told the AP. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on both parties to “suspend any action that alters the status quo and to withdraw all elements so as to prevent any further escalation and permit MINURSO [the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara] to hold discussions with both parties on the situation.” But the two sides have been at loggerheads for decades, with negotiations going nowhere since 1991. Morocco annexed the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that is the size of Colorado, in 1975. Today, it controls the bulk of the disputed territory, despite opposition from the Algerian-backed Polisario Front — which says it represents the indigenous Saharan, or Sahrawi people — resulting in the oldest territorial dispute in North Africa. The U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991 established the MINURSO peacekeeping mission to prepare a referendum on the territory’s status, but it has never taken place because the two sides can’t agree on who qualifies to vote. (In 1975’s “Green March,” King Hassan II sent more than 350,000 Moroccans into the territory to push Spain out and bolster Morocco’s presence there.) Morocco has proposed giving the region wideranging autonomy, but the Polisario Front insists on self-determination through a referendum, with independence as an option — a prospect Morocco outright rejects. Home to phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds off its coast, the Western Sahara may also possess untapped offshore oil deposits. Over the years, both sides have been accused of human rights abuses. An estimated 170,000 Sahrawis currently live in abject poverty with diesel-fueled power generators in the Tindouf refugee camps along
Credit: UN Photo / Evan Schneider
Sahrawi refugees at the Smara Refugee Camp outside of Tindouf, Algeria, await U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his March 2016 visit, which was aimed at encouraging Morocco and the Polisario Front to find a resolution to the now 40-year-long conflict over the Western Sahara.
“
Right now we’re on the verge of going back to war…. [T]he Moroccans and our forces are less than 100 meters from each other. Any small incident could provoke the war, so the war is not something we want but is something on the table. Mouloud Said
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representative of the Polisario Front to the United States
the Algerian-Moroccan border, where they rely on international aid as they wait in legal limbo. Meanwhile, for Rabat, Western Sahara is one of its most sensitive foreign policy issues. Ban was severely criticized by Morocco earlier this year for referring to its annexation of a portion of Western Sahara as “occupied.” His March 2016 visit to the Moroccan-controlled territory was met with protests and the expulsion of over 70 civilian MINURSO staffers from the territory. Two-dozen civilian staffers have since been allowed back, but the mission is reportedly not operating at full steam. “In the Smara refugee camp, I saw firsthand the deep emotions and profound frustrations resulting from more than 40 years of living without the prospect of a better future,” Ban wrote after a visit to the
Polisario camps in April. “I recoiled at the inhumane conditions and extremely harsh environment in which the refugees live.” The U.N. then extended the MINURSO mission another year despite a staff shortage that continues to render it unable to fulfill its mission of ensuring a compliant ceasefire. Ban is scheduled to return to Morocco in November to attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP22, which will be held in Marrakech. Morocco was equally critical of conclusions drawn in the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human rights violations, which included citations from an Amnesty International study that between 2010 and 2014, “police and security forces over this period routinely inflicted beatings, asphyxiation, stress positions, simulated drowning, and psychological and sexual violence” against Sahrawis living in Moroccocontrolled Western Sahara. Despite the condemnation, Morocco remains defiant. Last year, on the 40th anniversary of Western Sahara’s liberation from Spanish colonial rule, King Mohammed VI celebrated the Green March, describing it as a “watershed moment in the process to complete the kingdom’s territorial integrity.” “Those who are waiting for any other concession on Morocco’s part are deceiving themselves,” the king reportedly said. “Indeed, Morocco has given all there was to give.” The king said that an agreement would be ironed out within the framework of the U.N., but that the region would be incorporated into Morocco and that natural resources, agricultural fisheries and tourism would generate over $7 billion annually. The following month, however, in December 2015, the European Union’s Court of Justice put a stop to a four-year-old fishery deal between Morocco and the See Polis ar io • page 14 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016 | 13
TWD: Your former president, Mohamed Abdelaziz, died in May. Did he have a final message or any last words?
Polisario CONTiNUED • PaGE 13
EU on the grounds that some of the products were taken from Morocco-controlled Western Sahara. And this past September, an advocate general at the Court of Justice in Brussels declared that, “Western Sahara is not part of Moroccan territory and therefore … neither the EU-Morocco Association Agreement nor the Liberalisation Agreement are applicable to it.” While the opinion is not legally binding, the winding court case is likely to further strain relations Rabat-EU relations and possibly jeopardize a proposed free trade agreement between the bloc and Morocco. Yet it is doubtful the U.N. Security Council, which has little appetite to wade into the long-running dispute, will take any concrete action. Morocco is considered a stable, moderate ally in the Arab world and has in the past been supported by France (though Paris denies threatening to use its veto power to back Rabat). Meanwhile, the Polisario Front is dealing with its own internal political upheaval as it tries to combat global apathy of its plight. Mohamed Abdelaziz, the Polisario secretary-general for 40 years, died in May of lung cancer. The new president, Brahim Ghali, has asked the U.N. for a clear agenda toward a referendum for self-determination. A quarter century after the ceasefire that was supposed to usher in that referendum, many
SAID: Yes. I was one of the last people to be with him, and one of the things he told me to tell everyone was to keep the struggle, keep the fight, to keep the unity and to have in mind the freedom for our people. This was the main message he told me every moment we saw each other. TWD: How are the younger generations of Sahrawi faring? Are they impatient living in the desert without action?
CrEDiT: UN PhOTO / marTiNE PErrET
The Sahrawis live in dusty refugee camps in Tindouf, along algeria’s border with morocco and mauritania, and subsist on international aid.
frustrated Sahrawis wonder if resuming their armed struggle is the only way to achieve independence. Mouloud Said, the Polisario representative in Washington, works out of his Northwest D.C. apartment with two staffers. His time is largely spent on Capitol Hill educating lawmakers on Western Sahara. We spoke to him about the recent ceasefire violations and the larger stalemate: THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT: How would you characterize the current
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situation with Morocco? MOuLOuD SAID: Right now we’re on the verge of going back to war. These days we are close, because the Moroccans have been provoking the United Nations in Guerguerat. [T]he Moroccans and our forces are less than 100 meters from each other. Any small incident could provoke the war, so the war is not something we want but is something on the table. TWD: Morocco says the move is to fight drug smugglers. SAID: No. This is something intentional. Last March, they expelled part of MINURSO. This is an insult to the Security Council itself. Only the Security Council can move, bring or take out people from there — not Morocco. TWD: What are they doing out there? SAID: They are trying to build this road to bring Moroccan trucks to sell goods throughout Africa — to develop the Moroccan economy, but they will not be doing it at our expense. So, the Security Council told them to stop it — leave the status quo and change nothing. So, the Moroccans, they stopped. Meanwhile, our troops are camping in the middle of that road right now, about 100 meters away from the Moroccans. TWD: How many of you are waiting there? SAID: There is enough. I can’t say 100 or 1,000, but we have there enough to take care of any situation. And the fact that we are so close together, any time could happen an incident. And when any small incident between two soldiers starts, that can begin a war that nobody can stop. TWD: Is there communication between the parties? Are they yelling at each other? SAID: No, no. We speak through the United Nations, but they are so close I’m sure they can hear each other. TWD: What have your troops been ordered to do? SAID: Right now, just to make sure that the Moroccans don’t move. TWD: And what if they are fired upon? SAID: They will fire.
14 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOvEMbEr 2016
SAID: The youth being impatient is an understatement. They are more than impatient. They are fed up with this situation of no peace/no war. And I think during the visit of Mr. Ban Ki-moon to the region, when he visited the liberated area in the refugee camps, he met with a group of youth who conveyed the message that they can’t keep waiting forever and that the United Nations is not doing anything to help this process. TWD: Who in the United Nations is the main roadblock against a referendum? SAID: The French. In the Security Council, they stop any attempt to start a referendum or advance in this peace process. TWD: Why? SAID: Because the French, they are in this conflict since day one. Don’t forget that during the war, the French Air Force was used against the Sahrawis. For the French that’s their backyard, their private garden, that part of North Africa. There’s also the corruption in the French system, with many in the French leadership who have castles in Morocco, have their villas. The last example was [former French President] Jacques Chirac, before he died, they flew him in from Morocco in a special plane because that’s where he was living. That’s their playground: Morocco. TWD: Are there any other obstacles within the permanent members of the Security Council? SAID: The French are the number one. And we wish the Americans were more forceful in trying to push the peace plan to at least balance the French and the Moroccan obstructionists. TWD: Why do you think America has not been more helpful? SAID: I think Americans recognize Sahrawis deserve the right of self-determination. Why they don’t go farther than that is our question also. TWD: How big is the Moroccan lobbying effort in Washington? SAID: My last counting is that they have 14 to 15 companies that are doing lobbying for Morocco on the Hill. Morocco pays these guns for hire because they don’t have a case. We are not against a strategic relationship between the U.S. and Morocco, but not at the expense of the human rights of other people. TWD: What is your game plan for achieving independence? SAID: It’s the same plan we started on day one. We will continue with the same determination to keep our struggle, whatever time it takes, to make sure our people can freely choose their destinies. SEE PolIs ar Io • PaGE 47
WD | United Nations
Empty Promises? U.N. Lauds ‘Breakthrough’ Refugees Declaration, But Will It Have Teeth? by Karin Zeitvogel
“H
istoric.” “Breakthrough.” “Watershed moment.” Those were some of the words the United Nations used to describe the declaration for refugees and migrants that was signed by all 193 U.N. member states in mid-September. The signatories pledged, in the slightly paraphrased words of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to protect the human rights of refugees and migrants regardless of status; increase support for the countries hit hardest by the massive influx of humanity; ensure that children get an education; prevent gender-based violence; improve search and rescue operations; and boost humanitarian funding and resettlement of refugees. Days after the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants was signed, world leaders adopted it at a summit meeting at the U.N. It was the first time the General Assembly had called for a summit to address the large movements of people and, ostensibly, come up with a solution. The U.N. again sang its own praises, calling the nonbinding declaration “a historic opportunity to come up with a blueprint for a better international response.” What does that mean? It’s a bit like a cover letter for a job where the applicant includes all the keywords that they think they need to get the hiring manager to notice them, but doesn’t really say much about him or herself. The final, watered-down declaration shied away from a prior commitment to resettle 10 percent of the world’s refugees in the developed world. Instead, summit leaders promised to reach a concrete “global compact” in two years. In the meantime, they offered lofty but vague and unenforceable platitudes to help the 65 million people forced to flee their homes because of violence, conflict or persecution, in the largest exodus of humanity since World War II. Alexander Betts, the director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, agreed that the declaration is “abstract.” In fact, he says it’s inevitable that it would be. Betts said that even though the declaration contains “important ideas” — including that refugee camps should be the exception, refugee children have the right to an education “and refugees are a shared global responsibility” — it would only be of value “if states could be held accountable to these commitments.” Ban said the same. The secretary-general, who was himself displaced by war when he was growing up in Korea, said, “The New York Declaration can make a real difference in the lives of refugees, but only if the leaders who adopted it make good on their promises.” The big question is: How do you get them to do that? You could try galvanizing significant new global commitments to increase funding for humanitarian appeals and international organizations; admit more refugees through resettlement or other legal pathways; and boost refugees’ self-reliance and inclusion through opportunities for education and legal work. That’s what President Barack Obama tried to do the day after the first U.N. refugee summit, when he co-hosted a high-level meeting on the refugee crisis. Obama hosted it with Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden, all of which have taken
Credit: UN Photo / JC McIlwaine
A woman prepares to clean a fish in Nyal payam, South Sudan. In September 2015, 18,000 more people reportedly came to the area in search of safety after violence broke out between the South Sudan government and the armed opposition forces. Since then, the conflict has forced millions from their homes.
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The New York Declaration can make a real difference in the lives of refugees, but only if the leaders who adopted it make good on their promises.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
in refugees; in all, 30 countries took part. After a day of speeches, those countries pledged a $4.5 billion increase in humanitarian aid for refugees, promised to provide education for 1 million additional refugee children and said they would more or less double the number of refugees they take in. For his part, Obama said he would raise the number of refugees the U.S. would permanently resettle from 85,000 in fiscal 2016 to 110,000 next year. Already, the U.S. has accepted 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year after barely accepting any since that country’s civil war broke out (although that 10,000 is still paltry compared to the 4.8 million Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries such as Turkey and Jordan). Among the other pledges Obama secured: Turkey and Jordan would tentatively pry open their labor markets to Syrian refugees (though most are still barred from legally working in both countries), and nations like Argentina and Portugal will start their first-ever resettlement programs.
The promises look good on paper, but there have been similar conferences in the past and not everyone who said they’d help actually did. Other countries simply throw money at the problem without taking in any refugees, as seen in the European Union’s plan to give Turkey financial incentives to take back refugees arriving illegally in Greece. “The focus of these meetings has become removed from challenges on the ground,” Betts wrote in an editorial published in the Irish Times. “Grand declarations are one thing, but when people are suffering around the world, and governments are dying, was this strategy [holding U.N. meetings] really the best use of finite political capital?” The U.N. insists that holding the high-level meetings and signing the declaration were the right things to do. The world body says all it was really asking member states to do was come up with a roadmap for a better response to this unprecedented mass movement of people.
Abysmal Response A better response is needed, because the response in some countries has been downright abysmal. Take Australia. It has been roundly condemned for the flagrant abuse of asylum seekers and refugees, many of them children, whom it holds on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. “It is current government policy that no person who arrives in the country by boat seeking asylum (plane arrivals are not subject to ‘mandatory detention’) is ever settled in Australia. Instead, they are sent to Nauru, or to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, for ‘offshore processing,’ a bleak dysphemism because no genuine resettlement ever takes place,” See r efu gees • page 44 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016 | 15
WD | Middle East
Big Effect of Small Arms U.S. Spent Billions Supplying Guns to Middle East Since 9/11, Losing Track of Many Weapons by James Cullum
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he United States has flooded Iraq and Afghanistan with billions of dollars worth of small arms since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has lost track of millions of them, according to a recently published report on 412 Department of Defense contracts by the London-based advocacy nonprofit Action on Armed Violence. People often associate U.S. military assistance with heavy hardware such as armored fighting vehicles, anti-tank weapons and attack helicopters. But small arms — pistols, assault rifles, machine guns and shotguns — can be just as lethal, if not more so. Action on Armed Violence estimates such small arms kill over half a million people each year — and that doesn’t even include conflict areas. In war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, which are already awash in small arms, throwing more guns into the mix can fan the flames of sectarian and ethnic violence. Moreover, keeping track of such weapons in largely anarchic societies — and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands — is a monumental undertaking. The Pentagon has not provided detailed numbers on its small arms exports to either war zones, so Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) spent nearly a year scouring Defense Department contracts and found that they totaled over $40 billion for guns and ammunition. “We are not talking aircraft carriers here; $40 billion is a huge amount of issued contracts just for guns, attachments and ammo, even over 14 years of warfare,” Iain Overton, AOAV’s director of investigations, said. “We conducted this review after a Freedom of Information request to the U.S. Department of Defense, asking for details on AK-47 sales to Iraq and Afghanistan, was returned completely redacted,” he explained in a press release. “We did not anticipate, though, finding so much money having been spent by the Department of Defense on small arms, ammunition and attachments.” Overton added that such arms shipments to unstable states should be more properly tracked. “We also know the U.S. government has acknowledged they don’t know where many of these weapons now are.” AOAV concluded that DoD spent over $2 billion on small arms in Iraq and Afghanistan — almost eight times more than what it publicly reported on foreign military assistance and contracts. That breaks down to over 1.45 million small arms sent to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2015, including nearly 112,000 machine guns, 692,000 assault rifles and 266,000 pistols. “We know by looking at other U.S. government records that at least 1,452,910 small arms have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in the last 14 years,” Overton said. “The DoD contract database appears to list as little as 3 percent of these.” The implication is that missing weapons end up on the black market or in the hands of terrorists, thereby prolonging conflicts in these war-torn regions. “It wouldn’t be possible to sell these weapons without over a decade of warfare,” William Hartung, an arms and security expert with the Center for International Policy, told The Washington Diplomat. “The Pentagon is not even audited, so they need to check their books and keep track of these weapons once they’ve left the country.” The Pentagon did not refute the claims in the re-
16 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
An Iraqi soldier with the 7th Iraqi Army Division fires an M16A2 service rifle during advanced marksmanship training at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Oct. 25, 2015.
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Credit: U.S. Marine Corps Photo / Cpl. Akeel Austin
We are not talking aircraft carriers here; $40 billion is a huge amount of issued contracts just for guns, attachments and ammo, even over 14 years of warfare. Iain Overton
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director of investigations for Action on Armed Violence
port and maintains that weapons were lost in the race to adequately supply arms to struggling Afghan and Iraqi military forces. “Once we transfer a weapon over to a partner nation government, it is their responsibility to account for that weapon,” Mark Wright, a Department of Defense spokesman, told The Diplomat in an email. “The new governments of those nations started their existence already locked in a brutal fight with terrorists, former regime personnel and other hostile elements. Speed was essential in getting those nations’ security forces armed, equipped and trained to meet these extreme challenges. As a result, lapses in accountability of some of the weapons transferred occurred.” But critics argue that the sheer scale of these “lapses” was inexcusable, particularly because counting weapons and recording their serial numbers is common practice in the U.S. military. As C.J. Chivers wrote in an Aug. 24 New York Times piece, “In one of many examples, a 2007 Government Accountability Office report found that 110,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and 80,000 pistols bought by the United States for Iraq’s security forces could not be accounted for — more than one firearm for every member of the entire American military force in Iraq at any time during the war.” Chivers argues that the Pentagon’s dismal recordkeeping and monitoring of firearms point to a larger
problem: The U.S. military embraced ambitious nation-building campaigns that were more than it could handle in Iraq and Afghanistan. “All together, the sheer size of the expenditures, the sustained confusion about totals and the multiple pressures eroding the stock combine to create a portrait of the Pentagon’s bungling the already-awkward role it chose for itself — that of state-building arms dealer, a role that routinely led to missions in clear opposition to each other,” Chivers wrote. Keeping tabs on small arms in chaotic warzones where illiteracy, corruption, abuse and incompetence are rampant is already a difficult task. Doing it while trying to fight off enemy attacks, train nascent security forces, rebuild infrastructure and install democratic institutions is infinitely harder. It’s little surprise then that entire caches of U.S.-supplied weapons, from artillery to armored personnel carriers, have been lost or captured by enemy forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (and to a lesser degree Syria). As the number of U.S. troops winds down in Afghanistan, the problem of missing firearms has trickled down to beleaguered Afghan forces. A 2014 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that 43 percent of U.S.-funded small arms had missing information or duplicated serial numbers. That’s because the Pentagon organizes its weapons intended for Afghanistan with two information systems that are not linked and require manual entry, according to the report. Afghan officials were also cited for not correctly entering accurate information in their own separate inventory management system. “This issue will be compounded as the number of ANSF [Afghan National Security Force] personnel decreases to lower levels in the coming years,” the SIGAR report warned. “Without confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to account for or properly dispose of these weapons, SIGAR is concerned that they could be obtained by insurgents and pose additional risks to Afghan civilians and the ANSF.” WD James Cullum is a contributing writer and photographer for The Washington Diplomat.
WD | Medical
Global Tradition Around the World, from Germany to Japan to U.S., Holidays Bring Added Pounds by E.J. Mundell
A
ll that feasting between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day can mean widening waistlines for Americans. But they’re not alone: New research shows that holidays in Germany and Japan pose the same challenges. “In these three prosperous countries, weight gain occurs during national holidays,” concluded a team led by Elina Helander of Tampere University of Technology in Finland. The study, published Sept. 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine, came as no surprise to one U.S. nutritionist. The findings “reinforce what many men and women admit to — it’s really difficult to stay on track with a healthy eating plan during the holidays,” said registered dietitian Dana Angelo White. “Many Americans decide to completely throw any sense of healthy eating out the window from November to January, and this is no good for our waistlines,” said White. She is a clinical assistant professor of sports medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. But what about the Germans and Japanese — do they fare any better in terms of keeping the pounds off during the holidays? To find out, Helander’s team used hightech “wireless” scales to track the weight of nearly 3,000 people in those two countries plus the United States. In the study groups from each country, participants averaged about 42 years of age, and men outnumbered women. In the American group, 24 percent were already obese, compared to 19 percent of the Germans and 11 percent of the Japanese. Weight was tracked in all three countries for the 10 days before and after Christmas Day. Weight was also tracked for Americans around the Thanksgiving holiday, for Germans around the Easter holiday, and for the Japanese around the time of that country’s Golden Week holiday (late April to early May). The investigators found very similar bumps up in weight gain for people in all three countries around the Christmas holidays. In the United States, people averaged a 0.4 percent rise in their weight during this time, compared to 0.6 percent in Germany and 0.5 percent in Japan, the findings showed. The Japanese piled on an extra 0.3 percent of body weight during Golden Week, the study found, while Germans and Americans averaged a 0.2 percent rise in weight during Easter and Thanksgiving, respectively. Helander’s team noted that not all of this holiday weight is easily lost again. “Although up to half of holiday weight gain is lost shortly after the holidays, half the weight gain appears to remain until the summer months or beyond,” the study authors wrote. And, “of course, the less one
“
photo: Phasin Sudjai / Fotolia
Holidays are tied in to tradition and family, two things that make it very hard to say ‘no’ to certain dishes. Stephanie Schiff
”
registered dietitian at Huntington Hospital in New York
gains, the less one then has to worry about trying to lose,” they added. Stephanie Schiff is a registered dietitian at Huntington Hospital in New York. She said the patterns outlined in the study are familiar and understandable. “Holidays are tied in to tradition and family, two things that make it very hard to say ‘no’ to certain dishes,” she said. “The fact that people gain extra weight over the holidays is often reflected by the increase in attendance at gyms and health clubs right after the New Year,” Schiff said. So, how can people navigate the upcoming holiday season without packing on the
pounds? White offered a few tips. “Try to eat normally as much as possible,” she said. “Restricting calories at other meals in an effort to ‘save’ calories for parties and large family meals tends to backfire and leads to overeating.” She also advised people to be alert to “liquid calories,” especially in the form of alcoholic beverages. “Drink more water and indulge in a cocktail or two — but that’s it,” White said. Finally, she said, “hold yourself accountable and make it a family affair. Plan to have some healthy options available at holiday gatherings and come up with creative ways to get in some physical activity.” According to Schiff, healthier cooking options may be as simple as substituting chicken broth for butter in stuffing, or serving mashed cauliflower or parsnips instead of mashed potatoes. And, White said, remember that “the holidays will come and go, but that extra weight will stick with you if you aren’t more mindful about your choices.” WD Copyright (c) 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016 | 17
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Luxury Living A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
•
November 2016
cutline
Photos: FlYwheel sPorts
Fit for the Holidays Experts Offer Tips to Stay in Shape During Season of Splurging •
bY stePhanie Kanowitz
W
Crystal hinnant is an instructor at Flywheel sports, above.
ell, it’s here: the season of consuming — and I don’t just mean gift giving and receiving. It’s that time of year when we let everything go a little bit, including our waistlines. With all the holiday treats tempting us in the office and at home, we can hardly blame ourselves, right? (I’m looking at you, pumpkin spice latte, latkes and Christmas cookies!)
But we don’t have to wait for New Year’s Day to resolve to have a healthier holiday season. To find out how to make better choices and handle indulgences now, we asked local fitness experts for tips.
CrYstal hinnant instruCtor at FlYwheel sPorts CitYCenterdC and duPont loCations
Q: What does a typical day’s menu look like for you? A: I’m kind of a creature of habit. I get up at 4:15 every day. I teach a 6 a.m. class in Dupont, and I don’t eat anything before that class. I teach and then I come home, and I usually try to have something pretty clean, high in protein — if have time, scrambled eggs and fruit are my go-to. I eat the whole egg. I’m not a big fan of just the whites. If I’m running late, usually some see FITnESS • Page 20 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOvEMbEr 2016 | 19
Fitness
SIDEBAR
Continued • page 19
Expert Tips to Avoid Holiday Overindulging
sort of breakfast bar that’s high in protein, low in sugar. For lunch, I tend to go to this place called Beefsteak pretty much every day. I work [at a law firm] downtown near [the George Washington University] campus at Foggy Bottom. There’s a Beefsteak and it’s flash-steamed vegetables, so a bunch of green vegetables and a little bit of quinoa. It’s really good. Or I like to go somewhere and get a salad. I usually get protein on the salad, but not always. I can’t eat anything like a big sandwich during the day. I just get too tired. I go back to Flywheel and I teach late afternoon or early evening, depending on the day, so if I haven’t had that bar for breakfast, I might have it as an afternoon snack, but something a couple hours before I teach. I don’t get home until 8, so my dinners are usually pretty small. Last night I had snapper and a salad.
• Start the holiday meal earlier in the day so that you’re not eating late at night and then falling asleep on a full stomach. • Don’t skip meals before holiday parties or dinners and have a healthy snack beforehand because you’re less likely to overindulge, since you’re not starving. • Worried about staying motivated? Sign up for a class or make plans to meet a friend because if you’ve invested money or someone is depending on you, you’re more likely to go. • Stay active while traveling. Find a class
“
to sign up for at your destination, take a walk outside, hop on a treadmill or engage in a winter sport such as ice skating, skiing or snowshoeing. If you’re lucky enough to be in warmer environs, swim, hike or bike. • Most importantly, make peace with the fact that you’re going to overindulge. Get up the next day and refocus without beating yourself up. Don’t let one or two splurges lead you completely off track for the rest of the season. — Stephanie Kanowitz
Stephanie Kanowitz Group cycling instructor at George Mason University
(Yep, yours truly has been teaching cycling classes for almost nine years.)
Q: How do you stay disciplined?
A: I avoid all of that. I never liked that stuff. If I go to Starbucks, I go with an Americano over a latte. And a secret to that if you really like the milk, get a little bit of steamed milk in it. It’s a lot less than what you get with a latte. It’s the same idea as a latte but without all the calories. If you have to have the pumpkin spice latte, have half the pumps. They put six or eight pumps in a drink. Just do half. You’ll still taste it. You have to watch your alcohol intake. I’ve found as I get older, it’s kind of a vicious cycle. You go to an event and you have a few drinks and then you start eating more because you’re relaxed and maybe you overindulge and you need more sleep and you miss that morning workout and then you feel bad about that and you’re also feeling a little tired so you start
so we don’t really have many flavors like that. My sister-in-law makes this derby pie that is delicious. It’s like a massive chocolate chip pie.
A: I think the best way to get back into anything is a body weight workout. If you’ve indulged and you’ve eaten all those pies and you’ve eaten all those meals, you can do your body weight squats, your push-ups, sit-ups and then you can start adding a little bit of plyometrics to it so you get your heart rate up.
A: I’m just not the person who’s going to sit down at the table and not eat or push my food around. I like food and I like being social and celebrating the holidays with my friends and family. I try to make the majority of my choices good, especially where it’s a buffet style. If 80 percent of my plate is healthier food options, maybe leaner proteins, then it’s not a big deal if I want to have some mashed potatoes to go with it or dessert.
Q: What about drinks? Even those — egg nog, hot chocolate with marshmallows — are heavier at the holidays.
”
Crystal Hinnant
cycling instructor at Flywheel
Q: What’s your go-to exercise to counteract any indulging?
Q: How does that change during the holidays?
A: I try to have a plan and I try to keep a calendar. I go week by week because it can be really overwhelming from Halloween until New Year’s to have a plan that’s that big. And each week I’ll look [at it]. I think as long as you’re exercising and taking care of your fitness, you’re going to feel better, you’re less likely to make really poor food choices.
If 80 percent of my plate is healthier food options, maybe leaner proteins, then it’s not a big deal if I want to have some mashed potatoes to go with it or dessert.
Photo: Flywheel Sports
Flywheel Sports offers 45-, 60- and 90-minute classes at locations in CityCenterDC and Dupont Circle.
comfort eating. Q: What are you most tempted by? A: I love cheese. If I go to a party and there’s a cheese platter, I’m not going to stand next to the cheese platter and have a conversation because I’ll mindlessly eat brie. You’ve got to take it off the platter and have portion control and self-control. During Thanksgiving, I love the stuffing. I love carbs. I’ve never been a huge sweets person, but once I start snacking on the sweets, I keep doing it for some reason. So unless it’s something that I really love, I avoid the dessert.
Chandini Hemrajani Personal training manager at Vida Fitness at the Yards Q: What does a typical day’s menu look like for you? A: For my morning, I do a protein smoothie with agave and cashew butter. About two and a half hours later, I’ll eat an egg white omelet with spinach, salt and pepper, and maybe a slice or two of avocado. Lunch is brown rice with stir-fried chicken and vegetables.
20 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016
The fourth meal will either be a protein shake after a workout with some cashew butter or some almond butter. Dinner is fish with roasted vegetables or a raw slaw, like a carrot slaw, so not everything is cooked. Before I go to bed, I have a protein shake. Q: And what about during the holidays? A: I definitely enjoy my sweet treats and big meals. Trying to keep the first two meals of the day on Thanksgiving as closely related to my normal meal really helps. It kind of forces you not to eat as much when everybody sits down for this big meal. During the holidays I get maybe four meals in. Maybe I don’t get my workout in on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so you reduce your meals because you’re not burning that many calories. Q: What foods tempt you the most? A: My boyfriend makes this amazing sweet potato pie. It’s my weakness. It’s definitely something I’ve indulged in over the past few years — with the marshmallows on it, of course. There’s nothing like it. I’m Indian
Typical menu: Breakfast is a granny smith apple with sunflower seed butter or peanut butter and coffee with soy milk creamer. I cobble lunch together with whatever is around — often a baked sweet potato, Greek yogurt with raw walnut pieces or some vegetable soup. Snacks are usually a filling fruit, such as bananas, or a protein bar if I am headed to teach a class. Dinners vary widely, but a staple in my house is veggie-infused pasta with turkey meat sauce. I have a small dessert immediately after dinner every day. Holiday adaptations: I try to stick to the same light breakfasts and lunches because I know dinner is going to be heavy on the buttery, sugary dishes. I skip the bread and gravy and choose white meat turkey breast at Thanksgiving. I’m Jewish so I don’t have to worry about a big Christmas dinner, but I have to watch my intake of latkes, fried potato pancakes, during Hanukkah. Sweets are my weakness, but because I am careful with the rest of my meal, I don’t worry about having a little extra dessert. Fitness level: I don’t skimp on eating so I don’t skimp on working out either. I run five times a week and lift weights. I recently began doing yoga again, too. My inspiration: My kids. I try to model smart choices and an active lifestyle all year, not just during the holidays, but I want them to know it’s OK to treat yourself, too. WD Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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WD | Luxury Living | Real Estate
Long-Awaited Homecoming Real Estate Director Reunited with Congolese Family After 17 Years •
by Stephanie Kanowitz
W
hen Billy Ekofo left his family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 17 years ago, he never imagined that the next time he’d see them would be on a stage in San Francisco where he was aptly giving a talk titled “Speak the Possible into Existence.” But that’s what happened Aug. 4, when he was reunited with his mother, father and younger brother. “I believe that when you see a person, you see that which is possible, and when you see the possible, you see life itself,” Ekofo had said not long before his wife walked on stage with his estranged parents and brother. “I saw my mom and I was like, ‘OK, this is a bit weird,’” he said. Let’s start at the beginning. Ekofo, director of leads management at Century 21 Redwood Realty, was born in 1981 in Indianapolis, Ind., to Congolese parents. Ekofo’s stateside birth is the pivotal part of this story, even if almost two decades passed before anyone realized it. His birthplace made him an automatic U.S. citizen, although he would have no real connection to the country until he was nearly an adult. “I was just an American on paper, but Congolese by everything else,” he said. That’s because his parents moved soon after his birth to France so his father could attend graduate school. Two years later, they settled in the Congo. In the mid-1990s, violence erupted in the region in the form of the Congolese Civil Wars. Ultimately, the fighting would involve nine African nations and kill an estimated 5.4 million people. The U.S. Embassy made sure Ekofo wasn’t one of them. In 1998, U.S. citizens were being evacuated from the Congo, and embassy officials knocked on Ekofo’s door in Kinshasa to say he had one day to prepare for a trip to the United States. He packed a single duffel bag with clothes and school report cards and carried some money and the phone number of a family friend, Etienne Bote-Tshiek, who had immigrated to Virginia some years earlier. It took Ekofo two and a half weeks to snake his way through two stops in Cameroon to Brussels and then Paris before arriving in New York City. He slept in the airport there until his flight to Richmond, Va. On arrival, he picked up a pay phone and hoped for the best. The friend didn’t know Ekofo was coming. “I had some change in my pocket from what was left over from my travel and I shoved every coin
22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016
Century 21 Redwood Realty’s Billy Ekofo, pictured second from right and in the top photo, is reunited with his Congolese family after 17 years during a talk he held in San Francisco.
into a payphone,” he said. Someone picked up the phone in the friend’s office at 5:45 p.m. on a Friday and realized the young man speaking French into the line probably needed to speak to Bote-Tshiek. He picked Ekofo up and took him to his home in Newport News. Ekofo spent a couple weeks getting his identification and Social Security cards in order. He also called his family. “Bear in mind that this entire time I was traveling they had actually no idea where I was,” he said. Once Ekofo was on his feet, Bote-Tshiek, whom he called “Papa Tshiek,” asked him to move along. He found him a spot with a coworker who had an extra room in Norfolk. And again, Ekofo packed his bags. In the end, Ekofo lived with two American host families in Norfolk, graduated from high school and then left again to attend Hampden-Sydney College, where he studied economics and minored in French.
He graduated in 2004 and took a job as an international student adviser at a private university in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area before going into media production. In 2011, he enrolled in business school at the College of William and Mary and earned an MBA in 2013. By then a family man, he moved his wife and children to Manassas in hopes of finding work in D.C. with an NGO or nonprofit. After he came up empty for six months, his father-in-law helped get him a job at Century 21. That intervention, too, proved fateful because it was Century 21 Redwood executives Eddie Berenbaum and Bran Inman who were so moved by Ekofo’s story and his commitment to the company that they decided to give something back to Ekofo: his family. “We had this idea: What if we gave back to Billy — somebody that spends so much of their time giving back to others?” Berenbaum said in a video about the reunion. And so Ekofo saw his mom, dad
and younger brother for the first time in 17 years this summer. His sister was in the late stages of pregnancy and couldn’t make the trip, and his older brother had come to the U.S. for Ekofo’s 2006 wedding and changed his immigration status then. He lives in North Carolina. Ekofo’s family spent about a month traveling, seeing the sights in D.C. and meeting the coworkers who brought them here. But “most of the time we just hung out,” Ekofo said, getting to know one another again. “It was special.” His parents returned to the Congo in mid-September. “My parents felt compelled to go back,” he said, largely because of his sister. But his younger brother, 22, remained and Ekofo is working to change his immigration status so he can stay. He also hopes to bring his parents, sister and her family here in the near future. WD Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
Photo: Inman
WD | Luxury Living | Real Estate
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Education A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
•
November 2016
Photos: Nicholas Griner / Howard County Public School System
Long-Distance Medicine Universities Feed Explosive Growth of Telehealth Phenomenon •
T
by Carolyn Cosmos
elemedicine, or “health care at a distance,” is experiencing a boom worldwide, and universities and their affiliated hospitals are key drivers of this growth spurt, experts say.
Telemedicine (sometimes called telehealth) is the use of electronic communications to transfer medical information from one site to another. It involves digital connections such as video conferencing that links patients to specialists, cell-phone reminders about medical appointments, emails to ask doctors routine questions about colds, rashes and earaches, and remote monitoring of surgery patients recovering at home via the internet. This type of virtual technology is becoming increasingly reliable — and relied upon, particularly in more remote, rural plac-
26 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | november 2016
es where health care is lacking, whether in India or Indiana. It’s an emerging market, one “likely to soar over the next five years,” according to a recent analysis from business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. “The revolution is finally here” announced a recent Wall Street Journal piece titled “How Telemedicine Is Transforming Health Care.” “Doctors are linking up with patients by phone, email and webcam. They’re also consulting with each other electronically — sometimes to make split-second decisions on heart attacks and strokes. Patients, meanwhile, are using new devices to relay
Eight school health clinics in Howard County, Md., have telemedicine carts that offer students 24-7 access to Johns Hopkins medical staff who can help remotely treat conditions such as sore throat, rash or fever.
“
We are now up to 32 states that support telehealth reimbursements by private insurance…. [I]n 10 years, we will see virtual and collaborative care as part of our regular health care interactions. miKe baird CEO of Avizia Telemedicine Devices, Software and Services
their blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs to their doctors so they can manage chronic conditions at home,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Beck. Mike Baird has seen this explosion firsthand. He’s the CEO of Avizia, a telemedicine technologies firm based in Reston, Va. Set up seven years ago, Avizia has experienced “phenomenal growth in the last three years,” he told The Diplomat. With customers in 37 countries, he sees telehealth “surging everywhere.” But he said that particularly in the U.S., “there is dramatic pressure on the health care industry to provide better quality of care, reach more patients and cut costs.” New technologies, he argues, are often the only way to meet these hydra-headed demands. Frost & Sullivan attributes the rise in telehealth to a number of factors, including: the Affordable Care Act (i.e. Obamacare, which mandated more insurance coverage); the need to manage chronic health conditions among aging baby boomers; improvements in state and federal reimbursement rates and in physician licensure rules; and the increase in digitally savvy consumers who demand convenient health care. Likewise, an analysis last November by Foley & Lardner, a national law firm, said that consumer demand “for more affordable and accessible” health care is fueling telehealth growth. It also pointed out that government
”
policy is catching up, citing a study showing that more than 200 pieces of telemedicine legislation were introduced in 42 states in 2015. “It is expected that the global telemedicine market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.3 percent through 2020, eventually reaching $36.2 billion,” the law firm said, noting that expanding reimbursement coverage, an uptick in international arrangements, momentum at the state level and more retail clinics and employer on-site health center are helping to drive this surge. Baird of Avizia described this progress on the legislative and regulatory fronts as “providing tailwinds for telehealth in the U.S. We are now up to 32 states that support telehealth reimbursements by private insurance.”
telehealth inCubators Foley & Lardner partner Nathaniel Lacktman recently wrote that “historically, telemedicine has been focused in the academic medical center and university environment because that’s traditionally the domain of pilot programs and research studies.” Baird points to universities as incubators of telemedicine that are pushing “the innovation curve forward,” both in their neighborhoods and around the world.
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Across the country, universities are not only teaching telehealth to medical students and conducting studies, they’ve also been launching — sometimes for many years — telehealth outreach to local partners such as clinics, especially in rural and underserved communities that lack specialists, including pediatricians or even primary care providers. Among the leaders in this field, Baird cited the Oregon Health & Science University, UCLA, the University of California-San Francisco, the University of Virginia and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). MUSC, for example, offers telehealth at 80 locations throughout the state and at 26 public school clinics. It provides, among other programs, mental health, maternal fetal services and a neuroscience program that helps dementia patients. In the Mid-Atlantic region, Photo: Nicholas Griner / Howard County Public School System universities are also using comKerrie Wagaman, munity outreach to advance telehealth. coordinator of For example, the University of Virginia, which has provided health health services for services and “traveling clinics” to the state’s rural areas since the 1970s, Howard Country now has more than 150 community telehealth sites throughout the state, Public Schools, said Dr. Karen Rheuban, a pediatrics professor and medical director of treats third-grader the Office of Telemedicine at the University of Virginia School of Medi- Felicity Holmes at Stevens Forest cine. Taking a different approach, the University of Maryland Medical Sys- Elementary using of the school’s tem boasts telemedicine outreach to intensive care units in 12 hospitals one telemedicine carts. throughout its network. This “tele-ICU” program provides nighttime, weekend and holiday remote management and 24-7 critical care nursing support, said Dr. Marc Zubrow, the system’s vice president of telemedicine. Meanwhile, the George Washington University has a rare 24-7 maritime telehealth program that serves commercial and research vessels (such as those working in the Bering Sea), as well as yachts and aircraft. And Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Md., through one of its
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Mike Baird founded Avizia, a telemedicine technologies firm based in Reston, Va., seven years ago and said he’s seen telemedicine “surging everywhere.”
Photo: Avizia
affiliated hospitals, provides medical oversight and immediate contacts for a two-year-old Howard County telehealth program in eight school health clinics, said Dr. Ingrid Zimmer-Galler, director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Telemedicine and an associate professor of ophthalmology. Hopkins also runs a statewide telehealth program that screens for diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that frequently goes undetected until the disease is advanced. Academic centers are drivers of this development because they can provide evidence demonstrating that telehealth works, Zimmer-Galler explained. They can show improved outcomes, for example, and with multiple disciplines in one space, they offer the synergy of cross-cutting research and collegial collaboration. They also often receive grants to fund the projects that encourage further innovation. In fact, part of the reason why universities have thrived in the tele-
health movement is that they have the financial resources to do so. Unlike a provider in a private practice, university physicians and other academic researchers are paid employees. Perhaps even more important, public colleges and universities receive state support and most university research has traditionally been funded by grants — although, in recent years, state and federal funds have been drying up.
Personal Touch, from Afar A pediatric cardiologist, the University of Virginia’s Rheuban once used telemedicine to help save the life of an infant in China. However, she has also been busy in the public policy sector, serving on boards, getting to know state and federal players and becoming a policy wonk to navigate the burgeoning field. For instance, See Telemedicine • page 30
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SIDEBAR
Tele-What? Telemedicine is the use of electronic communications to transfer medical information from one site to another. It usually involves a clinical service offering “patient health care at a distance.” The term covers live video conferencing and use of instruments such as a digital stethoscope. It also covers the transmission of still images such as X-rays and remote patient monitoring of vital signs or wounds healing at home, as well as “e-health,” medical education and nursing call centers. Telehealth, sometimes used interchangeably with “telemedicine,” is a more recent and a broader term. It covers any type of remote health care that uses communications technology, including patient education, disease self-management, web apps, text reminders to patients and notices to families from telehealth clinics in schools. eHealth is a health care practice supported by electronic processes and communication. It applies to physician offices that have electronic health records. mHealth or mobile health care is the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile communication devices such as cell phones, tablet computers and PDAs. Source: Glossary of the American Telemedicine Association
Telemedicine Continued • page 29
she has been instrumental in establishing Virginia’s progressive telehealth payment system. To honor her contributions, the university’s telehealth center now bears her name. At the George Washington University, Dr. Neal Sikka, co-chief of the Telehealth Section at the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said the school focuses on health problems commonly found in an urban environment. He noted that a weakened patient with a chronic disease and few resources may have as much trouble getting across town to his doctor’s office as an isolated rural individual who needs to drive several hours would. So his team is working on ways to use telehealth to serve an urban population. It’s also exploring novel treatments in post-surgery wound care as well as tele-consults for those in chronic pain, which is critical in an era of opioid overuse. At the University of Maryland Medical Health System, Zubrow spoke proudly of his remote outreach to intensive care units in the state and said that “telehealth is going to explode locally and nationally.” “I take some pride that we’re monitoring every ICU bed on the Eastern Shore,” he told us. “It’s effective. It keeps patients locally situated where families can easily visit their loved ones and their physicians can have a life — no phone calls all night.” The University of Maryland’s telehealth services include home-based remote care that can assess a patient’s status and manage chronic disease. Consults variously specialize in stroke care, high-risk prenatal medicine, psychiatry and genetics counseling. Programs include those for advanced liver disease, neurosurgery followup and inflammatory bowel disease Johns Hopkins has an occupational medicine outreach to 56 work sites in 23 states and recently added a “teledermatology” service to the program. It’s also fielding a telehealth Parkinson’s pilot program that
monitors patients at home and is implementing distance psychiatric care and a bio-containment unit with a remote connection to the main Hopkins hospital. The unit is reserved for patients with highly infectious diseases such as Ebola. And, as of last summer, Hopkins now has a centralized Office of Telemedicine, part of its School of Medicine.
The Hopkins School Connection The crown jewel of the expansive telemedicine network at Johns Hopkins, however, may be a relatively new project that has put CareClix telemedicine carts into eight school health clinics in Howard County, Md. CareClix offers 24-7 access to a certified physician from any smart phone, tablet or computer. Jointly run by Johns Hopkins and the Howard County Health Department, the program links students to nurses at Johns Hopkins school sites and a team of pediatric emergency room physicians led by Dr. David Monroe, medical director of the Children’s Care Center at Howard County General Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins. The Health Department selected the participating schools, all of which are located in underprivileged
Ingrid ZimmerGaller, director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Telemedicine, right, models a patient as Alnicia Jackson, a certified nursing assistant, demonstrates how she would coordinate with Dr. Jamil Bayram, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, seen on the screen to the left. Photo: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
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communities where many children are eligible for free lunch. Parents must officially enroll students in the program and during the initial pilot, Monroe said the focus is on treating minimally complicated medical issues such as sore throat, rash or fever. Call-ins from a school nurse are handled by physicians in Monroe’s ER, all trained in telehealth. During its first full year, the remote system had 110 virtual visits — 24 percent for fever, 20 percent for asthma, 15 percent for rashes, 5 percent for headaches and a smattering of sore throats, Monroe said. Only about 10 or 15 seriously ill acute patients showed up. “All of us at the hospital have found it rewarding. The children, nurses and the families are very appreciative. The tech is good. Many of the students have little or no primary care and we [work to connect them] using lists of physicians who will accept them as patients.” At Ducketts Lane Elementary, one of Howard’s pilot schools, assistant principal Derek Anderson said, “I fully support the program and look forward to seeing it grow.” His admiration is not only from an administrator’s perspective. He witnessed the process firsthand when his daughter Peyton, then 4, used the service last year while at Bollman Bridge Elementary School. “Peyton had a rash, no fever, and her school nurse called me here to report it, explain it was a minor infection, give me prescription information and say she would call it in. I was able to phone my wife, who’s a federal employee in the District, and pick it up after work,” he said. The program serves the school population well, Anderson said. “Many are new to the country or the area. Families need assistance negotiating health care and we
can now provide that. It’s a great service.”
Not a Cure-All The nascent field, however, is not without its challenges — among them, licensing problems, spotty Medicare coverage and some customer revolt at the prospect of getting a diagnosis via the internet. Quality is an overarching concern. Even minor respiratory tract infections, for instance, can be misdiagnosed from afar. Doctors are often anonymous and have no prior relationship with the patient. Accreditation for telehealth doctors, some of whom are based abroad, varies wildly. Thus, many patients are still more comfortable with traditional face-toface visits — as are many doctors who grew up with a pen and paper, not iPads and webcams. Interestingly, telemedicine may inadvertently lead to a few turf wars. A 2010 New York Times article noted that when patients received additional monitoring by remote physicians, their on-the-ground doctors and nurses complained that it felt like someone was constantly looking over their shoulder. Some patients are simply not aware of the telemedicine phenomenon. And insurance reimbursements and legal regulations have yet to catch up. “Rules defining and regulating telemedicine differ widely from state to state and are constantly evolving. Physicians groups are issuing different guidelines about what care they consider appropriate to deliver in what forum,” the Wall Street Journal article noted. “Some critics also question whether the quality of care is keeping up with
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the rapid expansion of telemedicine. And there’s the question of what services physicians should be paid for: Insurance coverage varies from health plan to health plan, and a big federal plan covers only a narrow range of services,” it added. The American Telemedicine Association reported that 48 state Medicaid programs now have some type of coverage for telemedicine. Medicare, however, has been slow to embrace the trend. It has very narrow and geographically limited (i.e., rural) coverage. However, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is working with Congress to provide payments for telehealth services “in any location.” In addition, states have adopted so-called “parity laws” that require private insurers to reimburse doctors who provide remote care at roughly the same rates as what they charge for in-person visits. Still, the entire regulatory system is fractured among the 50 U.S. states, so a doctor licensed in one state cannot provide services to someone in another state — a fact that often renders the concept of long-distance telemedicine moot. These barriers are lowering a little, with 17 state medical boards having adopted a “compact” to provide physician licenses in each other’s states. Kathy Wibberly is director of the MidAtlantic Telehealth Resource Center at the University of Virginia, which offers information on telehealth programs, collects data such as outcomes and tracks the thicket of laws and regulations affecting states along the Eastern corridor. Regional trends that Wibberly sees include parity laws that require private insur-
ers to cover telehealth services in Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, D.C. and Delaware, with such laws being introduced in New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Only West Virginia has “no movement” toward parity, she said. Separately, only Kentucky and Pennsylvania reimburse for remote monitoring. Overall, Wibberly said that in the region, “there is a movement toward greater reimbursement for telehealth services,” although the field still sees limited reimbursement payments. Mobile health care is increasingly important, if poorly reimbursed, she added, noting that 85 percent of the global population has access to a cell phone. Despite the challenges, Zimmer-Galler of Johns Hopkins predicted that the industry will continue to move forward at a rapid clip. “Virtual visits are a small percentage of health care today,” and some patients are “unsure” about them, but she said they’re “going to grow exponentially.” “The younger generation is so connected in their daily lives,” she told us. “If you order your Uber on your phone, and Uber drops you off where you can pick up a coffee, already paid for, on your way to work, well, you are going to think, ‘If I can order my coffee with my phone, why can’t I see my doctor that way?’ And when a child in school can be seen in a telehealth consult, it’s less disruptive for the child and nice for the parents,” Zimmer-Galler said. Baird of Avizia predicted that “in 10 years, we will see virtual and collaborative care as part of our regular health care interactions.” That can’t come soon enough for the busy CEO. The father of five children ranging in age from 5 to 16, he said managing family health care in the U.S., as it’s currently set up, “isn’t easy.” WD Carolyn Cosmos is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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Culture arts & entertainment art
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DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES
Center Stage As the wife of a first-time ambassador, Carla Peterson may be new to diplomacy, but she’s got the chops to at least act the part. The striking blonde from Argentina is an acclaimed television and theater actress with dozens of credits to her name. / PAGE 35
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ART
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‘North is Freedom’ Tucked into the expanse of the Embassy of Canada is a small, thoughtful exhibition that showcases the stories of the descendants of African Americans who escaped slavery in the U.S. by fleeing north before the Civil War. / PAGE 36
THEATER
‘Once’ in a Lifetime Sam Cieri, who plays one of the leads in the U.S. tour of the Irish musical “Once,” can’t stop singing Dublin’s praises — or the unique boy-meets-girl story that isn’t your typical romance or musical. / PAGE 37
Jennifer Rubell’s “Lysa III” PHOTO: RUBELL FAMILY COLLECTION
For centuries, male artists have gazed upon women and shaped their image through paint, bronze or stone. Women were assigned roles as seductive muses, beautiful goddesses or forlorn lovers, but their identity was always defined by men. The National Museum of Women in the Arts flips that patriarchal switch in the compelling new exhibition “NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection.” / PAGE 34
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With the arrival of autumn, D.C.’s booming restaurant and bar scene continues to reinvent itself. / PAGE 38
Art / Discussions Music / Theater / PAGE 40
German Unity / Arctic Cool Korean National Day / PAGE 42 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016 | 33
WD | Culture | Art
A Woman’s Perspective Female Artists Explore Body, Process of Art in ‘NO MAN’S LAND’ •
BY BRENDAN L. SMITH
NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection THROUGH JAN. 8 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS 1250 NEW YORK AVE., NW
(202) 783-5000 | WWW.NMWA.ORG
F
or centuries, male artists have gazed upon women and shaped their image through paint, bronze or stone. Women were assigned roles as seductive muses, faithful wives, beautiful goddesses or forlorn lovers, but their identity was always defined by men until modern times. The National Museum of Women in the Arts flips that patriarchal switch in a compelling new exhibition called “NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection,” on view until Jan. 8. Featuring artwork by 37 female contemporary artists from 16 countries, the show explores the art-making process and different interpretations of the female body, ranging from sensual to political to absurd. The exhibition is a smaller version of a show that opened last year at the Rubell Family Collection museum in Miami. Mera and Donald Rubell, who own a chain of hotels including the Capitol Skyline Hotel in Washington, D.C., have collected art since the 1960s and have assembled one of the largest private contemporary art collections in the world. “There’s something in the way in which a woman presents her nakedness than how a man presents a woman,” Mera Rubell told the Diplomat. “Forever the woman has been the subject of fascination by painters. She has been gazed at, but now she is both the artist and subject of the gaze.” Curators from the National Museum of Women in the Arts had the formidable task of pruning the original exhibition, which spilled across 45,000 square feet of galleries in the Miami museum, to 7,000 square feet to fit their downtown D.C. location. They also had to make sense of a vast body of artwork with little connection other than the gender of the artists. While the exhibition features stellar work, the two competing themes about the female body and the art-making process don’t really fit together, and the exhibition sometimes feels like two different shows sandwiched together with little connecting the halves. Several artists use female mannequins to challenge the impossible societal standards for female beauty and the corrupting influence of capitalism. German artist Isa Genzken draws surgical lines on a mannequin’s stomach and adds some ceramic birds on its shoulders, reminiscent of Snow White and other fairy tales where a maiden must suffer until being saved by a prince. The piece is called “Schauspieler,” meaning “actor” in German, with many women acting out confining roles because of misogyny or their own perceptions of womanhood. The most provocative (and funniest) piece in the exhibition was created by the Rubells’ daughter, Jennifer Rubell, who is known for performance art focused on food. Inspired by a gag Hillary Clinton nutcracker, a nude female mannequin with absurdly large breasts and flowing blonde hair is suspended on its side with a vagina that is a working nutcracker. Viewers can pick a walnut from a bowl, pull the mannequin’s top leg down and hear a startling crack in a quiet gallery before eating the walnuts. Called “Lysa III,” the piece could offer alternative interpretations of the power of a woman’s sexuality that scares some men or a society where a woman’s talents are reduced to a sole function contained between her legs.
34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016
PHOTOS: RUBELL FAMILY COLLECTION
Featuring artwork by 37 female contemporary artists from 16 countries, “NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection” includes works such as, from top, Solange Pessoa’s “Hammock,” Mickalene Thomas’s “Whatever You Want” and Hayv Kahraman’s “Prelude.”
In “Migrant. I,” Iraqi artist Hayv Kahraman creates a haunting oil painting about the travails of migrants forced from their homes into a world that often doesn’t want them. The work is especially timely now with the wave of migrants and xenophobic discrimination spreading across Europe and the build-a-wall sentiment expressed by presidential candidate Donald Trump and his ardent followers. Resembling a playing card, two intertwining torsos represent Kahraman, who fled from battlefields in Iraq to Sweden with a falsified passport. One torso extends upward while another faces down. One woman has her eyes closed while the other is blindfolded, and they both have nooses tied around their necks. The powerful piece shares some poignant grief about a migrant’s past, uncertainty about the future and how the vagaries of luck carry too much weight in determining who lives or dies. If you’re still upset that you don’t have a new iPhone 7 after viewing this heartfelt work, then there’s something wrong with you. Mickalene Thomas creates a sensual portrait of her partner in “Whatever You Want,” one of the few pieces in the show that revels in female sexuality. The acrylic painting, accented with rhinestones, features a black woman with a large Afro. Her blouse is open, exposing one breast, and her bold gaze is inviting or challenging, depending on the reactions of the viewer. The other half of the exhibition concentrates on the physical process of art-making, often with unusual materials or work that blurs the lines between fine art and craft, a distinction that has really lost any meaning in recent years. Solange Pessoa’s “Hammock” features large fabric bags stretching toward the floor in an amorphous mass. In “Life Serves Up the Occasional Pink Unicorn,” South Korean artist Anicka Yi has created a wall-size installation of tempura-fried flowers coated in resin mounted on Plexiglass in front of chrome-plated dumbbells, contrasting feminine and masculine associations. While the process-related artwork is commendable, it doesn’t mesh well with the more confrontational work about the female body. A more effective pairing may have been with political or protest art. Since the original exhibition featured artwork stretching from the 1960s to the present, that’s a fascinating opportunity to explore how female artists have tackled the issues of the day beyond the female body. The next stop of the traveling exhibition hasn’t been announced yet, but curators at each venue can shape their own personalized versions from the massive collection in the Miami exhibition. That’s a welcome plus for different audiences across the country. WD Brendan L. Smith (www.brendanlsmith.com) a freelance writer and mixed-media artist in Washington, D.C.
WD | Culture | Diplomatic Spouses
Acting the Part Acclaimed Argentine Actress Maintains Lower Profile in D.C. •
BY GAIL SCOTT
A
s the wife of a first-time ambassador, Carla Peterson may Carla Peterson, wife of the Argentine ambassador, is be new to diplomacy, but she’s an acclaimed television and got the chops to at least act the theater actress with dozens part. The striking blonde is not a household PHOTO: MATIASGALAN.COM of credits to her name. name in Washington, D.C., but back home me to go to university and be a docin Argentina, she’s often recognized on the tor or a lawyer. He didn’t know how street — and not just because of her looks. to guide me. I grew a lot. I took dance Peterson is an acclaimed television and in New York, Broadway tap dancing. theater actress with dozens of credits to her Miguel Guerberof, the director, has name. She has won numerous awards for guided me.” her work, including “Lalola,” a highly popuGuerberof often directs her in lar Argentine comedy show that played in Shakespeare productions. She has 50 countries, among them Russia, India, also toured Germany with Guerberof Turkey and Brazil. She first appeared on for a Shakespeare festival and taken a television in the 1992 telenovela “Dance Samuel Beckett play to Milan. Party,” followed by a string of acting gigs, Peterson says the life of an actress including an appearance on Polish televican appear glamorous, but it also insion in the TV4 broadcast of the soap opera volves a good deal of work. “Enamorarte (Young Lovers),” in which she “Learning lines is still the most played a single mother bringing up her son. difficult,” she explained. “I have so The 42-year-old — who could easily little private time. I often go out to a pass for her 20s — also performs in the studio or a bar where I can be alone. Buenos Aires Shakespeare Festival, reguFor me the lines of classical theater larly makes full-length films and squeezes like Shakespeare are easier; contemin time for commercials. porary theater is harder. I always Her husband, Martín Lousteau, is also learn in Spanish. If I have to speak well known, though his fame lies in politia foreign language — like French, cal circles. The 45-year-old ambassador has German or Italian — I learn my lines held various cabinet positions, including phonetically.” minister of economy and production, and She also said times have changed he was chairman of Banco de la Provincia backstage. “Hardly anyone asks for de Buenos Aires and Grupo Bapro SA. He my autograph anymore,” she said has also been a newspaper columnist for with wry amusement. “They just “La Nación,” the author of four books, a want a selfie!” consultant specializing in macroeconomPeterson is proud that Buenos ics, a professor and a mayoral candidate. Aires has a thriving theater culture. In October 2013, Lousteau was elected to PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT “We have 400 theaters, including 235 Parliament representing the city of Buenos salons like your off-Broadway productions. Argentina ranks Aires. In 2015, he ran for mayor, receiving the first in Latin America with the number of theaters and 48.4 percent of the votes. right under New York and Paris internationally. Our cheapIn Argentina, the power couple is often est tickets are $20 for the salons and $200 for the most exfeatured in magazines and newspapers. Here, pensive seats.” their lifestyle is more subdued as they focus Argentina’s capital also boasts a legendary social scene. on his diplomatic posting and raising their “We have good restaurants and nightlife,” Peterson said, 4-year-old son, Gaspar. noting that many Argentines eat dinner at 10 p.m. or later. “For Gasper, it is so normal to see our “There are lots of special places to go for tango…. People are faces on TV. When he sees me there, he says, out every night until three to four in the morning [dancing ‘Mommy is working,’” Peterson told us. “In tango],” she told us, noting that the embassy in D.C. reguthe beginning, Gaspar looked just like his larly offers tango classes. father, everything was the same except for CARLA PETERSON “We are not just theater and tango,” she added. “We the curls,” she added, noting her husband’s wife of Argentine Ambassador Martín Lousteau have three new Nobel Prize recipients and are known for signature curly hair. “Now, Gaspar is getting our technical advances, top scientists and biologists. In the curls.” But she doesn’t necessarily want her son to follow in his father’s political foot- Northeast, we have famous falls that are one of the ‘new seven wonders of nature,’” she said, referring to the Iguazu waterfalls that Argentina shares with Brasteps. “Oh, no! I want him to have more fun [than that] and travel a lot.” While Peterson is prominent in Argentina, she wants to maintain a low-profile zil, whose narrow chasm is nicknamed “The Devil’s Throat.” In addition to its natural beauty and booming tech sector, the South Ameriin D.C. “I try not to go [to events], but I go when my husband really needs me. I choose a little more than other spouses because I want to spend time with Gas- can nation of 43.4 million is known for its diversity. Peterson said Argentina is par. At home in Argentina, in the theater I worked every night,” she said. “Living a country of immigrants. (Argentines usually refer to themselves as a “crisol de in another country, it is a very good time for me because I don’t have to go to razas,” or “crucible of races.”) “We are friendly people because of that. There is very little discrimination. work every day or night.” While in Washington, she is continuing her theater studies at the Washington We have many places that are stuck in time, others that are very modern. Many School of Performing Arts and taking various dance classes at the Joy of Motion of us have family who live all over the world. And many Argentines live around the world.” Dance Center. The globe-trotting actress could easily fit into that category, though this downShe also occasionally travels back to Argentina to star on camera. “I returned to Argentina to do two movies and a commercial. It sounds like a lot but it doesn’t to-earth mother takes fame and diplomacy in stride. As she wrapped up our take me a long time. I also presented one of my movies at film festivals in Fort interview with a quick pose for the camera, she continued to tout her beloved Lauderdale and Miami,” she said, noting that she’ll be attending the Cannes Film homeland. “There is only one hour or two hours difference in time zones with America,” she said, encouraging Americans to visit Argentina. “Another good Festival this year. “I always knew I wanted to be an actor,” Peterson said. “But my mother said I thing: You will have no jet lag!” WD had to study ‘serious’ things…. I loved movies, dancing and playing. “My father was in the Air Force. I started doing some theater. My father wanted Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
“
Learning lines is still the most difficult…. For me the lines of classical theater like Shakespeare are easier; contemporary theater is harder.
”
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016 | 35
WD | Culture | Photography
North Star ‘Freedom’ Features Descendants of African Americans Who Fled to Canada •
BY MACKENZIE WEINGER
North is Freedom THROUGH JAN. 5 EMBASSY OF CANADA 501 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW
(202) 682-1740 WWW.CAN-AM.GC.CA/WASHINGTON/
T
ucked into the expanse of the Embassy of Canada is a small, thoughtful exhibition that showcases the stories of the descendants of African Americans who escaped slavery in the United States by fleeing north before the Civil War. “North is Freedom” is a photographic essay featuring two dozen portraits of descendants of some of the 30,000 fugitive slaves who used the secret routes and safe houses of the famous Underground Railroad network to follow the “North star” to Canada. Timed to coincide with the opening of the newest Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “North is Freedom” offers direct, intimate images that remind viewers of the connections — geographic, familial, historical — between the neighboring countries. Photographer Yuri Dojc, who fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1968 and then made his way to Canada, said his project highlights a very “human story” that connects Canada and the United States to this day. “It’s a fascinating story of movement, of people, and it’s an important part of Canadian and American history. And it’s so under the radar; I don’t know if they even teach that in schools,” Dojc told The Washington Diplomat. The large format portraits that occupy the small room on Pennsylvania Avenue are striking, simple images with an emphasis on the subject’s face. For those looking for more details about each person featured, a booklet is available so visitors can dig deeper into the various personal narratives on display. The photographs, notable for Dojc’s use of the dye sublimation technique, which uses heat to print in order to achieve a picture with virtually no lines, are neither black and white nor fully color. “The reason I used this is because I read the book ‘The Color of Water,’ and in the book the son, whose mother was white and father was black, asked his mother, ‘What color are we?’ And she said, ‘You are the color of water,’” Dojc recalled. “So I subdued the colors, and it gives the exhibition a character. It takes it away from ordinary. I want to make it so we are all the same — we are not black and white, we are not color. We are all somewhere between.” From solo portraits to larger family shots, the pictures feel both privately revealing and particularly Canadian, with some focused on the beauty of the landscape or the unique history of places like Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site in Ontario along with the descendants at the center of the photograph. It is a quiet, contemplative exhibition, giving those that stop by a short meditative break with few fellow sightseers likely to interrupt the visit. The grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great great-grandchildren of once-enslaved African Americans who settled in Canada some 150
36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016
PHOTOS: YURI DOJC © 2016
Czech photographer Yuri Dojc documented the descendants of the fugitive slaves who used the secret routes and safe houses of the famous Underground Railroad network to follow the “North star” to freedom in Canada.
years ago are photographed beautifully and sensitively by Dojc, with their family histories listed below their names and in the booklet connected with the exhibition. “To be included in this project is to finally pay homage to each of our ancestors. They may have had to follow the ‘North Star,’ but we can to the world, we are here, and we remain here,” descendant Susan Johnson-Washington said in the exhibition catalogue. Some individuals’ stories are lost, like Niagara Falls, Ontario, resident Wilma Morrison, whose description is simply “descendant unknown.” “During my early years, no one spoke of family history,” she said. “All older friends or relatives were referred to as aunt or uncle, and now that family has passed, the story has gone as well,” Morrison said in the booklet, which notes that she has spent much of her life working to preserve the black history of the Niagara region. The title of the exhibition comes from a poem by George Elliott Clarke, the current Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, and the room also features a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “Deep in our history of struggle for freedom Canada was the north star,” King said in 1967, adding that, “The legendary underground railroad started in the south and ended in Canada. The freedom road links us together.” For Dojc, the exhibition came together serendipitously when he was in D.C. last year, spurred on by driving past the National Museum of African American History as it was under construction and by encountering a monument to the Underground Railroad in Canada a month before. “And it’s connected with my own story, because I was a refugee from what was Czechoslovakia at that time, coming and searching for freedom,” he said. “So it could be I am looking for this kind of theme, which reminds me unconsciously … of the past, of how other people were searching for freedom and maybe I was searching for freedom myself.” WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
WD | Culture | Theater
Lyrical Ode to Dublin ‘Once’: Romantic Musical Isn’t Typical Guy-Meets-Girl Story •
BY LISA TROSHINSKY
Once NOV. 25 TO 27 NATIONAL THEATRE 1321 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW TICKETS START AT $48.
(202) 628-6161 | WWW.THENATIONALDC.COM
S
am Cieri, who plays one of the lead characters in the U.S. tour of the musical “Once,” has a newfound outlook on the play since he got to perform it in the play’s motherland. “The story is about an Irish singersongwriter who falls in love with a girl who inspires him not to give up his music, and it is set in Dublin,” Cieri said. “I’ve been performing in the show for a year in the U.S., and over the summer I did it in Dublin, Ireland, before coming back for this tour. Doing it over there changed how I saw the show. “I realized the play is a love letter to the city of Dublin and the country of Ireland and its people and music,” Cieri told us. “It’s about how music can start you and stop you as a person.” Cieri effusively sang the Irish capital’s praises. “Performing in Dublin was amazing. For me, Dublin is the greatest place on earth. When you land in Dublin, it feels like you just came home with the warmth of the people and culture,” he said. “But coming back to perform the play in the U.S., it’s an awesome challenge to bring what I found there to U.S. stages…. The people look at things brighter, their eyes water over, the effects of the play are tangible.” “Once” is the celebrated musical based on the Academy Award-winning film that tells the story of an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant drawn together by their shared love of music, which evolves into a powerful but complicated romance, heightened by the raw emotion of the songs they create together. The musical — which will have a limited run at the National Theatre this month and is helmed by acclaimed Scottish director John Tiffany — won eight 2012 Tony Awards and the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. But the play isn’t at typical love story or musical, according to Cieri. “The script isn’t a quintessential ‘guy-meets-girl’ love story and it can’t be tied up in a pretty bow,” he said. “I think when I first started working on the show, I foremost thought of it as a love story between two people. But now I realize it’s about what we people do and how that affects everyone around us. It’s much bigger than a love story and that’s why the play has been going this long, this strong and affects so many.” The plot focuses on the unexpected, growing chemistry between a boy and girl, fostered by their mutual enchantment with and communication through music. Within the course of their quick romance,
PHOTOS: © JOAN MARCUS
Sam Cieri and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy, left, star in “Once,” about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant drawn together by their shared love of music. The play, showing at the National Theatre, also features Bristol Pomeroy and Jenn Chandler, below.
insecure Dublin street musician “Guy” is persuaded by “Girl,” who is enthralled by his haunting love songs, not to give up on his musical aspirations. The musical is unusual in that actors play musicians and musicians play actors, who never leave the stage, which drives home the theme that music is ever-present in these fragile characters’ lives. “The play is also unusual because it’s not your typical musical,” Cieri explained. “It’s not flashy, not cutesy, the characters don’t burst into song. It also isn’t set the same way most musicals are. With big musicals like ‘The Lion King’ or ‘Wicked,’ you have set tracks and the characters ‘stand here’ and ‘do this’ every night; it’s more like a formula. With ‘Once,’ it changes often. I don’t think the audience sees the same show twice. This show takes the risk of change. When we rehearse, we have the freedom to mold it around the actors and what’s happening on stage that particular night…. It’s a very fluid process.” Guy starts the show singing what he thinks will be his last song. Each night, the song comes out a different way, Cieri said. “Some nights I feel like I’ve been on a bus for seven hours; I’m so tired I can’t believe I’m standing. So the song comes out like a Hail Mary task,” Cieri said. “Other nights my song ignites the scene. Those times where I have so much energy, I’ll give it everything I can. It gives the show a completely different energy. “One thing I do know that’s constant is that the show is heavy and emotional and exhausting,” he said. “If we don’t look like we’re empty by the end of the show, we didn’t do our job that night. We definitely need a drink after the show.” WD Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016 | 37
WD | Culture | Dining
Autumn Renewal As Leaves Change, Restaurant Scene Undergoes Changes As Well •
BY MICHAEL COLEMAN
W
ith the arrival of autumn, Washington’s booming restaurant and bar scene continues to reinvent itself, sometimes in new and novel ways and sometimes by more traditional means. Two recent openings — Dirty Habit in Penn Quarter and Ocean Prime downtown — reflect these divergent but intriguing strategies for grabbing attention and creating buzz in our hypercompetitive restaurant city. Dirty Habit, which opened in the site of the former Poste in Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco in Chinatown last month, brings a new look to a long-popular French bistro space that was in need of an update. Like Poste, Dirty Habit (first opened in San Francisco) is more of a place to get a drink and a bite than a dining destination. But discriminating diners will still find plenty to choose from. The kitchen specializes in bar-centric, but globally influenced, seasonal cuisine. And the space is all seductive curves and colors, with a novel concept that aims to conjure the apocalyptic vibe of an insane asylum. Yes, an insane asylum. One of the banquet rooms even has padded walls. They’re luxurious, cream-colored padded walls, but still, padded walls. Since Dirty Habit is less than a mile from Capitol Hill, the private room could be just the place for edgier lobbyists and members of Congress to hatch one of their crazy deals. Seven blocks away, near the National Press Club and the White House in a spacious spot formerly inhabited by the Cuban powerhouse Ceiba, Ocean Prime now holds court. Ocean Prime’s menu is, not surprisingly, filled with treasures from the sea, as well as prime cuts of meat. The restaurant’s menu and look are modern but still hew to the power dining formula that D.C. is famous for: lavish ingredients, subtle lighting, richly upholstered banquettes and a dapper wait staff. Ceiba’s once-cavernous design has been updated, in part by raising the floors to get rid of the former restaurant’s subterranean feel. The effect is a cozier space. With executive chef Kyoo Eom, a holdover from Poste, and Sarah DIRTY HABIT Ruiz, the new head bartender, at the helm, Dirty Habit focuses 555 8TH ST., NW on social interaction, offering bar-centric food that’s equally (202) 449-7095 suited for happy hours, sit-down dinners and late-night bites. WWW.DIRTYHABITDC.COM The concept appears built on top-tier ingredients, a high-end cocktail program and friendly but unobtrusive service. Eom’s eclectic vision includes such dishes as decadent duck and foie gras meatballs, lighter (and delicious) tempura calamari and guinea hen dumplings, inspired by a family recipe. Eom decided to keep a few mainstays from the old Poste menu, including the truffle fries and the crispy duck ravioli. Some starters include crispy calamari with jalapeño, pickles and a spicy remoulade, as well as fried chicken wings with peanut, chili and sweet and spicy sauce. If you’re hungrier, check out the duck breast with Meyer lemon-date puree, freekeh, barley and gochujang glaze, or braised short rib with house-made kimchi, pickled radish and sushi rice. Ruiz’s innovative cocktail program features house creations crafted with unexpected ingredients, large-format communal cocktails and distinctive serving vessels. That includes the Matcha Picchu, made with matcha green tea and pisco, and Smoke Signals, an Asian tea-infused spin on the classic Old Fashioned. The space feels intimate but it’s actually quite large. Dirty Habit’s remote38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOVEMBER 2016
PHOTO: DIRTY HABIT
Above, Dirty Habit in the Hotel Monaco exudes a dark, edgy ambiance. At left, the smoking shellfish tower is among the seafood delicacies sure to make Ocean Prime D.C.’s newest power dining spot.
controlled glass walls and expansive patio sleekly encompass an entire city block. Located across the street from the Verizon Center in the midst of vibrant Penn Quarter, Dirty Habit is designed to provide an ideal private urban hideaway. If Dirty Habit’s clientele is a mix of slinky dresses and slim-cut suits, think power ties and expense accounts at Ocean Prime. It’s not formal dining per se, but the spacious and modern restaurant’s proximity to the White House and Treasury Department ensure its inclusion in the pantheon of D.C. power dining spots. The Washington outpost is the latest in restaurateur Cameron Mitchell’s collection of Ocean Prime locations in 13 markets, including Boston, Beverly Hills, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas, Denver and others. Under the direction of executive chef Jason Shelley, PHOTO: TAA PR Ocean Prime’s from-scratch kitchen delivers an impressive and conspicuously opulent menu of fresh seafood and prime steaks. Check out the swanky starters: Sonoma goat cheese ravioli, white truffle caviar deviled eggs, surf ‘n’ turf with sea scallops. Or you can do a customizable shellfish OCEAN PRIME tower — market price, of course. There’s also a sushi bar doling out inventive rolls, includ1341 G ST., NW ing a heavyweight dubbed the “Prime Roll” (202) 393-0313 with tempura shrimp, cream cheese, scallion WWW.OCEAN-PRIME.COM/LOCATIONSand beef carpaccio, or the sweet-ish lobster roll with poached lobster tail, kiwi, pickled MENUS/WASHINGTON-DC serrano, masago roe and spicy mango puree. Main features include the Chilean sea bass served with whipped potatoes and champagne truffle sauce; swordfish and clams with pancetta, blistered tomatoes and chili flakes; and Florida grouper with Brussels sprouts, quinoa, almonds, red peppers and lemon. For those seeking even heartier fare, top cuts of steak — including filet mignon, bonein filet, rib eye and Kansas City strip — are wet-aged and broiled at 1,200 degrees. SEE DINING • PAGE 41
WD | Culture | Film
Cinema Listings *Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.
English
the game of chess. She quickly advances through the ranks in tournaments, but breaks away from her family to focus on her own life. Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Cameraperson
Saving Mes Aynak
Directed by Kirsten Johnson (U.S., 2016, 102 min.) A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage collected over the 25-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Directed by Brent E. Hoffman (U.S., 2014, 60 min.) Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori races to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site from imminent demolition by a Chinese state-owned mining company in this documentary. National Gallery of Art Sun., Nov. 27, 4:30 p.m.
Christine
Atlit
Directed by Antonio Campos
Directed by Shirel Amitay (France/Israel, 2015, 91 min.) In 1995 Israel, three sisters fight their personal demons and those of a nation as they deal with the sale of their inherited property (French and Hebrew). Washington DCJCC Tue., Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m.
(U.K./U.S., 2016, 115 min.) Christine Chubbuck, always the smartest person in the room at her local Florida news station, feels like she is destined for bigger things. Plagued by self-doubt, depression and a tumultuous home life, however, she finds herself caught in the crosshairs of a spiraling personal life and career crisis, which ends when she commits suicide on air. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Denial Directed by Mick Jackson (U.S./U.K., 2016, 119 min.) The whole world knows the Holocaust happened. Now she needs to prove it. Based on the acclaimed book, “Denial” recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving, who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Hunt for the Wilderpeople Directed by Taika Waititi (New Zealand, 2016, 93 min.) Defiant city kid Ricky, raised on hip-hop and foster care, gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside, where he quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family. When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and his cantankerous uncle go on the run in the bush and a national manhunt ensues. West End Cinema
Miss Hokusai Directed by Keiichi Hara (Japan, 2016, 93 min.) In the teeming capitol city of Edo in 1814 everyone flocks to see the work of the famous painter Hokusai, while his talented daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio, unrecognized and left to clean up after her father’s messes. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Queen of Katwe Directed by Mira Nair (South Africa/U.S., 2016, 124 min.) “Queen of Katwe” is the colorful true story of a young girl selling corn on the streets of rural Uganda whose world rapidly changes when she is introduced to
French
Being 17 (Quand on a 17 ans) Directed by André Téchiné (France, 2016, 116 min.) Damien and Thomas are French teenagers from very different backgrounds who go to the same high school near the Pyrenees and are constantly fighting. Damien is the gawky son of a doctor and a military pilot stationed abroad; he can’t seem to stop staring at exotically handsome Thomas, the adopted biracial son of local farmers, who initially reacts with hostility (French and Spanish). Landmark’s Cinema Opens Fri., Nov. 11
Belle de Jour Directed by Luis Buñuel (France/Italy, 1967, 101 min.) One moment, doctor Jean Sorel and wife Catherine Deneuve are exchanging bland “I-love-yous” from the comfort of a horse-drawn carriage; in the next the bored housewife starts spending her afternoons at a high-class brothel (French and Spanish). AFI Silver Theatre Nov. 19 to 23
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie) Directed by Luis Buñuel (France, 1972, 102 min.) A series of surrealistically dashed dinner plans — reasons ranging from a wake taking place in the adjoining room to soldiers bivouacking on the lawn — escalates into sexual, political — and even cinematic — shenanigans (French and Spanish). AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Nov. 20, 9:30 p.m., Wed. Nov. 23, 7 p.m.
Elle Directed by Paul Verhoeven (France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 130 min.)
A successful businesswoman gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the unknown man who raped her. Landmark’s Cinema Opens Fri., Nov. 18
German 24 Weeks (24 Wochen) Directed by Anne Zohra Berrached (Germany, 2016, 102 min.) “24 Weeks” tells the story of cabaret performer Astrid who, six months pregnant, learns that her unborn child will be severely disabled. She and her husband have a choice, but little time (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sat., Nov. 5, 4:30 p.m.
All of a Sudden (Auf Einmal) Directed by Asli Özge (Germany/Netherlands/France, 2016, 112 min.) After a party in Karsten’s apartment, everyone leaves except one mysterious woman. How could he have known that in this moment of weakness, his well-established life in a small provincial German town would spiral out of control? (Part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.”) Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sat., Nov. 5, 7 p.m.
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 197901989 Directed by Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck, Heiko Lange (Germany, 2015, 92 min.) Before the Iron Curtain fell, everything and anything seemed possible. This is a fast-paced collage of mostly unreleased film and TV footage from a frenzied but creative decade, starting with punk and ending with the Love Parade, in a city where it was not about long-term success, but about living for the moment (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sun., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Chucks Directed by Sabine Hiebler, Gerhard Ertl (Austria, 2015, 93 min.) Mae roams the streets of Vienna as a punk in her dead brother’s Converse shoes. She’s not interested in bourgeois life, but in stronger experiences. When she is sent to an AIDS center to work off a punishment, she meets Paul, who takes Mae as she is (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sat., Nov. 5, 9:15 p.m.
Fukushima, mon Amour (Grüße aus Fukushima) Directed by Doris Dörrie (Germany 2016, 108 min.) Young Marie heads to Japan to escape her broken dreams and attempt to spread a little cheer among the victims of the triple catastrophe in Fukushima.
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016 Quickly realizing she isn’t up to the task, she’s about to give up when she meets the headstrong Satomi, Fukushima’s last geisha. Despite their differences, the two women develop a bond (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Fri., Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m.
A Heavy Heart (Herbert) Directed by Thomas Stuber (Germany, 2015, 109 min.) Former Eastern German boxing champ Herbert has not been a winner in life since the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the hard up bouncer and debt collector suddenly collapses with spasms of pain and is diagnosed with a fatal neural disease, Herbert struggles with himself and the hard outer shell he‘s cultivated over time (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Fri., Nov. 4, 8:30 p.m.
Heidi Directed by Alan Gsporner (Germany/Switzerland, 2015, 111 min.) After charming her reclusive grandfather and falling in love with the beautiful mountain he calls home, Heidi is uprooted and sent to Frankfurt where she befriends Klara, a young girl confined to a wheelchair (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sun., Nov. 6, 2:30 p.m.
Time to Say Goodbye Directed by Viviane Andereggen (Germany, 2015, 82 min.) A lovesick German boy faces the aftermath of his parent’s split — and a slice of his manhood — in this laugh-outloud coming-of-age comedy. Washington DCJCC Tue., Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Wonderland (Heimatland) Directed by Michael Krummenacher, Jan Gassmann (Switzerland/Germany, 2015, 99 min.) A hurricane of catastrophic proportions is brewing over Switzerland. The country is in a state of emergency. Ten young Swiss filmmakers imagine how the Swiss would deal with the worst possible disaster: the downfall of their country (part of “Film|Neu: New Films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland”). Landmark’s E Street Cinema Sun., Nov. 6, 5 p.m.
Japanese Early Summer Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1951, 124 min.) In this astute tale of marriage and intergenerational conflict, the traditionminded Mamiya family agrees that it is time for their daughter (Setsuko Hara) to be married. Declining an offer to be matched with a prominent businessman, she impulsively decides to marry a childhood friend in a faraway village, fulfilling her family’s desire, while simultaneously
delivering a crushing disappointment. AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Nov. 14, 9 p.m., Tue., Nov. 15, 7:05 p.m.
The Idiot Directed by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1951, 166 min.) In Akira Kurosawa’s ambitious transposition of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 19th-century novel to post-World War II Japan, a man, shaken by his recent near-death experiences, is incapable of anything but utter candor — an idiot, in the eyes of society. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Nov. 6, 6:45 p.m.
Late Spring Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1949, 108 min.) A widowed professor’s daughter (Setsuko Hara) is reluctant to leave her father by himself, but it’s time for her to marry. As various candidates are considered, the dutiful daughter’s resistance seems to stiffen. AFI Silver Theatre Nov. 13 to 17
Tokyo Story Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1953, 136 min.) Two aging parents visit Tokyo to see their children — a busy doctor and a hard-boiled hairdresser — only to be shunted aside on sightseeing trips and the father’s bender with old pals. Only their widowed daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara) is sympathetic and attentive. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Nov. 20, 7 p.m., Tue., Nov. 22, 7 p.m.
Kazakh The Eagle Huntress Directed by Otto Bell (U.K./Mongolia/U.S., 2016, 87 min.) This spellbinding documentary follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl who is fighting to become the first female eagle hunter in twelve generations of her Kazakh family. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Opens Fri., Nov. 4
Korean The Handmaiden (Ah-ga-ssi) Directed by Chan-wook Park (South Korea, 2016, 144 min.) In this gripping and sensual tale of two women, a young Japanese lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but is secretly plotting with a conman to defraud her of a large inheritance (Korean and Japanese). Landmark’s Cinema
Mandarin Behemoth Directed by Zhao Liang (China/France, 2016, 91 min.) Artist and independent filmmaker Zhao Liang’s latest work is the stunningly beau-
tiful yet essentially unnerving depiction of a green and pastoral China about to be undone by expanding coal mines. National Gallery of Art Sat., Nov. 26, 4 p.m.
Stage Sisters Directed by Xie Jin (China, 1964, 112 min.) A Sirkian melodrama of the highest order — put to the service of Maoist principles of loyalty and sacrifice — “Stage Sisters” follows the lives, loves and artistry of an itinerant Chinese opera company during the 1930s and 1940s. National Gallery of Art Sat., Nov. 26, 1:30 p.m.
Silent The Cave of the Silken Web Directed by Dan Duyu (China, 1927, 60 min.) In 1927, Chinese film pioneer Dan Duyu and his wife (and leading lady) Yin Mingzhu made what is believed to be the first screen adaptation of “Journey to the West.”This 16th-century novel allegorizes the 7th-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his epic journey to India to procure Buddhist scriptures, passing through Dunhuang on his way back to China (silent with Chinese, Norwegian and English intertitles). National Gallery of Art Sat., Nov. 12, 1 p.m.
Spanish The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ensayo de un Crimen) Directed by Luis Buñuel (Mexico, 1955, 89 min.) Convinced from a young age that his music box has the power to kill, Archibaldo de la Cruz grows up to be a wannabe serial killer whose attempts at a sex-murder are repeatedly thwarted by kismet. AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
Nazarín Directed by Luis Buñuel (Mexico, 1959, 94 min.) Padre Nazario wishes to live a life of modesty and quiet devotion in preRevolutionary Mexico, ministering to the poor and living ascetically. But he attracts first one disciple, his mentally unstable neighbor, and then another, a hotheaded prostitute, with trouble following them everywhere they go. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Nov. 13, 5 p.m.
Swedish A Man Called Ove (En man som heter) Directed by Hannes Holm (Sweden, 2016, 116 min.) Ove, an ill-tempered, isolated retiree who spends his days enforcing block association rules and visiting his wife’s grave, has finally given up on life just as an unlikely friendship develops with his boisterous new neighbors. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016 | 39
WD | Culture | Events
Events Listings *Unless specific times are listed, please check the venue for times. Venue locations are subject to change.
ART Nov. 4 to 30
Seen vs. Shown: Perspectives on Human Identity When it comes to people, what is seen and what is shown does not necessarily coincide. By crossing boundaries of past, present and future, this exhibition of contemporary media and photography aims to reveal definitions of human identity, emotion and the anonymity that typically go unseen. Korean Cultural Center Nov. 9 to Jan. 13
Light from the Other Side: Shadowgraphs by Tim Otto Roth Shadows underscore the beauty of nature and escape the captivity of their surfaces in the shadowgraphs created by German conceptual artist Tim Otto Roth. Usually referred to as photograms, these highly differentiated shadow records on light-sensitive surfaces are created in a process similar to an X-ray, with Roth dedicating 15 years of research and development into this medium. Goethe-Institut Nov. 12 to Dec. 18
Alex Katz: Black and White This exhibit showcases renowned American realist artist Alex Katz’s lifelong interest in stripping color out of his prints and replacing sensual pleasure with intellectual design. Design versus color is an artistic debate that goes back to the Renaissance. American University Museum At Katzen Arts Center Nov. 20 to March 5
Stuart Davis: In Full Swing As one of the most important American modernists, Stuart Davis (1892–1964) blurred distinctions between text and image, high and low art, and abstraction and figuration, crafting a distinct style that continues to influence art being made today. National Gallery of Art Through Dec. 11
Gender Equality: We’ve come a long way - haven’t we? Sweden’s achievements in gender equality are hailed as inspiring examples. Focusing on four sub-goals of gender equality set up by the Swedish government — equal division of power and influence; economic equality; equal distribution of unpaid housework and provision of care; and men’s violence against women — this exhibition aims to inspire and reflect as well as discuss the changes that have been made and to initiate the changes still needed. House of Sweden Through Dec. 11
Spirit of the Wild: Through the Eyes of Mattias Klum All life on earth is interconnected. Cities,
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
societies and nations depend on healthy natural ecosystems to survive and prosper. Mattias Klum, one of the most important natural history photographer of our time, shares the stories of his journeys; from deep in the Artic to wild places like the Borneo rainforest, to the savannahs of Tanzania and the life under the sea. House of Sweden Through Dec. 11
Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Unfolded The freedom to express oneself in speech and writing is one of the basic human rights according to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Act was passed almost 200 years earlier, in 1766. This unique timeline exhibition reveals how Sweden’s freedom of the press came about and focuses on some of the advances and setbacks that have shaped it. House of Sweden Through Dec. 11
Viktigt by Ingegerd Raman With love of craftsmanship and simplicity at the heart of it all, Viktigt pieces do their job in silence. Ingegerd Råman, the House of Sweden’s own designer, explores the craftsmanship behind her IKEA collection of glass, ceramic, bamboo and natural fibers. House of Sweden Through Dec. 11
Wingårdhs The House of Sweden turns 10 years this fall. The architects behind the beautiful building tell us what motivated the design of this stunning example of contemporary Scandinavian architecture. House of Sweden Through Dec. 11
Woodland Sweden Nature is prevalent everywhere in Sweden and there is a long tradition of using nature’s raw materials in the country’s built environment. Wooden architecture and design, in fact, are becoming a new Swedish export item. This exhibition shows the rapid development of Swedish innovative contemporary architecture and examines different aspects of construction work with wood. House of Sweden Through Dec. 31
Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945 The style that came to be known as art deco, which flourished from the 1920s to 1940s, was a vivid reflection of the modern era and the vitality of the machine age. Between the wars, as normalcy returned to politics, jazz music blossomed and the flapper redefined the modern woman, art deco left its mark on every form of visual art. This exhibit explores how the Japanese interpreted the style and transformed it through their own rich art and craft traditions. Hillwood Museum, Estate and Gardens
40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
Photo: Embassy of the Czech Republic
The Czech Christmas Market, to be held Nov. 5 at the embassy, will showcase striking hand-blown glass ornaments.
Through January 2017
Resilience: Reclaiming History and the Dominican Diaspora Resilience is defined as the human ability to cope with difficult times and bounce back from personal trauma. The Inter-American Development Bank, with support from the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Embassy of the Dominican Republic, examine how artists create a space for society’s healing and growth. Today, the Dominican Republic is one of the most dynamic economies in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the advances in reducing poverty and inequality have not kept pace with GDP growth. Looking toward the future, the country needs to improve the quality of education, health care infrastructure and services, diversify exports and boost productivity, while also adapting to climate change and promoting innovation. IDB Cultural Center Through Jan. 2
Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt Dutch landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life possess a remarkable immediacy and authenticity, giving the impression that Dutch artists painted them from life. However, artists actually executed these works — as well as biblical and mythological subjects—in studios, often using drawings as points of departure. Over 90 drawings and 25 paintings by renowned Golden Age masters reveals the many ways Dutch artists used preliminary drawings in the painting process. National Gallery of Art Through Jan. 2
Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art Nearly 700 photographs from Eadweard Muybridge’s groundbreaking publication “Animal Locomotion,” acquired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1887, became the foundation for the institution’s early interest in photography. The Key Set of more than 1,600 works by Alfred Stieglitz, donated by Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Estate, launched the photography collection at the National Gallery of Art in 1949. Inspired by these two seminal artists, Muybridge and Stieglitz, the exhibition brings together
highlights of the recently merged collections of the Corcoran and the National Gallery of Art by a range of artists from the 1840s to today. National Gallery of Art Through Jan. 2
Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings “Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings” encompasses landscapes, seascapes, portraits, still lifes and history subjects that demonstrate the originality of Dutch and Flemish draftsmanship and its stylistic evolution. National Gallery of Art Through Jan. 2
Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa This exhibition features six internationally recognized African artists and examines how time is experienced and produced by the body. Bodies stand, climb, dance and dissolve in seven works of video and film art by Sammy Baloji, Theo Eshetu, Moataz Nasr, Berni Searle, Yinka Shonibare and Sue Williamson, all of whom repeat, resist and reverse the expectation that time must move relentlessly forward. National Museum of African Art Through Jan. 7
The Overflow of Productivity Logic “The Overflow of Productivity Logic,” with works by artists Cristina Lucas, Irving Penn, Abraham Cruzvillegas and more, features a selection of pieces that, through gestures, evocations or representations, displace the conceptual pillars of the prevailing economic model. Through three thematic axes, the exhibit calls into question production processes and economic exchange, reflects on the role that the economy plays in the constitution of an individual and challenges the logic of “productivity” within the capitalistic economic model. Mexican Cultural Institute Through Jan. 8
People on the Move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series The Phillips Collection reunites all 60 panels of “The Migration Series,” Jacob Lawrence’s seminal masterwork depicting the mass movement of African
Americans from the rural South to the urban North between the World Wars. Shaped by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this exhibition explores the historical, literary, socio-cultural, aesthetic and contemporary manifestations of migration that underlie Lawrence’s powerful visual narrative. The presentation is complemented by a new interactive website, featuring the artist’s first-hand accounts as well as contemporary responses to migration. The Phillips Collection
of nine Aboriginal artists from remote northwest Australia, revered as community leaders and the custodians of ceremonial knowledge. They took up painting late in their lives, but quickly established themselves at the forefront of Australian contemporary art. The paintings of these nine men cannot be understood outside of the rich cultural traditions that inform them. At the same time, these artists are innovators of the highest order. Embassy of Australia Art Gallery
Through Jan. 8
Through Feb. 12
Ragnar Kjartansson
Notes from the Desert: Photographs by Gauri Gill
“Ragnar Kjartansson” is the first major survey of the work of the internationally acclaimed Icelandic artist and his prodigious output since his debut in Reykjavík in 2000. It features the artist’s most celebrated works, including many never before seen in the U.S., and encompasses the entirety of his practice — live endurance performance, large-scale video installations, drawings, photography and painting. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through Jan. 8
Whitfield Lovell: The Kin Series & Related Works The work of internationally recognized Bronx-born artist Whitfield Lovell powerfully examines “the markings that the past has made — and continues to make—on who we are.” In his exquisitely crafted Kin series and related tableaux, Lovell combines freely drawn Conté crayon figures of anonymous African Americans with time worn objects from everyday life, such as a brooch, clock or flag. The Phillips Collection Through Jan. 28
DeLIMITations This exhibit chronicles a 2,400 mile-long, site-specific installation that traces the border between Mexico and the United States as it existed in 1821. In marking the short-lived historic boundary with a series of monuments that mimic those installed along the contemporary border, artists Marchos Ramírez Erre and David Taylor question the permanence of borders while recognizing the shared history and common interests between the two neighboring countries. Mexican Cultural Institute Through Jan. 29
Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971 The remarkable career of gallerist and patron Virginia Dwan will be featured front and center for the first time in an exhibition of some 100 works, featuring highlights from Dwan’s promised gift of her extraordinary personal collection to the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art Through Feb. 7
No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting “No Boundaries” showcases the work
Since the late 1990s, Gauri Gill (born 1970) has been photographing marginalized communities in western Rajasthan, India. Featuring 57 of her prints, this exhibition showcases Gill’s work in the remote desert region and draws on her extensive archive. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through Feb. 20
The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts In recognition of one of the world’s extraordinary collections of Qur’ans, the Freer|Sackler is hosting a landmark exhibition, the first of its kind in the United States, featuring some 50 of the most sumptuous manuscripts from Herat to Istanbul. Celebrated for their superb calligraphy and lavish illumination, these manuscripts — which range in date from the early 8th to the 17th century — are critical to the history of the arts of the book. They were once the prized possessions of Ottoman sultans and the ruling elite, who donated their Qur’ans to various institutions to express their personal piety and secure political power. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through March 26
The Great Swindle: Works by Santiago Montoya Colombian artist Santiago Montoya uses paper currency as the base for his work, re-contextualizing one of our most basic and intimate relationships: the relationship with money. Comprised of works that Montoya has made over the last 10 years, “The Great Swindle” represents a sustained examination of the complicated, fluid relationships we have with financial systems, as well as a journey through the artist’s forays into the materiality of paper bills — raising questions and taking positions on our place within the financial system. OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through Aug. 6, 2017
José Gómez-Sicre’s Eye A half-century ago, Cuban-born curator José Gómez-Sicre took the reins of the OAS’s art program, thrusting himself into the rapidly expanding Latin American art world and bringing young, emerging talent to the OAS’s budding exhibition space. Impassioned by the arts, Gómez-Sicre planted the seeds of what is today considered among world’s finest collections of modern and contemporary
WD | Culture | Events
Latin American and Caribbean art. The OAS will be celebrating the centennial of Gómez-Sicre’s birth throughout 2016, honoring his contribution to the legacy of the hemisphere’s art. OAS Art Museum of the Americas
dancE Nov. 4 to 13
Fuego Flamenco XII GALA Hispanic Theatre continues its 41st season with the 12th annual Fuego Flamenco Festival, which brings leading flamenco artists from Spain and the U.S. to Washington, including the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company and Francisco Hidalgo and Company. Single tickets are $40. GALA Hispanic Theatre Nov. 23 to 27
Cincinnati Ballet: The Nutcracker This annual presentation of this holiday favorite brings the D.C. premiere of a bright and colorful production featuring elaborate scenery, whimsical stage effects, awe-inspiring acrobatics and entrancing choreography. Tickets are $59 to $250. Kennedy Center Opera House
discUssions Wed., Nov. 19, 12:30 p.m.
How is it Going Germany: The Day After – German Perspectives on the U.S. Election The day after the elections, Dieter Dettke of Georgetown University, veteran German journalist Klaus Jürgen Haller and a group of election observers from Germany will talk with Charles Lane about the possible impacts the results of this election could have on the U.S.European relationship. Goethe-Institut Wed., Nov. 16, 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Serbia: A Cultural Confluence Contemporary Serbia’s inheritance from both the East and the West is rooted in its location: The Balkan nation sits astride the ancient “catena mundi,” the road tying Constantinople to Rome. This heritage is reflected in everything from the country’s flag to dual alphabets based on Latin and Cyrillic models, and from music and literature to culinary traditions. Serbian-born Vladimir Pistalo provides a cultural and historical overview of a nation that might be described as “the East of the West and the West of the East.”Tickets are $45; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center
FEstiVals Sat., Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Czech Christmas Market This popular annual event features beautiful hand-blown glass ornaments, exquisite glass and jewelry, delicious Christmas cookies, pastries, mulled wine (svařák) and more. Highlighted companies include Glassor, Antipearle, La Bohemia Bakery, Slovak-Czech Varieties and Topix Crystal Art. For more information, visit www.mzv.cz/ washington/en/culture_events/culture/ czech_christmas_market.html. Embassy of the Czech Republic
marry a peasant — just as a mysterious Marquise comes to whisk her away to become a proper lady. Tickets are $45 to $315. Kennedy Center Opera House
Sat., Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Slovak Christmas Market Washington’s Christmas bazaar season starts this month with the unique Slovak Christmas Market at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic. Enjoy beautiful handmade glass ornaments; tastings of traditional Christmas soup and mulled wine; Christmas cookies; famous Austrian jewelry from Oliver Weber by Swarovski; and Christmas carols by children´s choir. Embassy of the Slovak Republic
Through Nov. 13
Sense and Sensibility
Through Nov. 6
Kids Euro Festival 2016 The Kids Euro Festival, now in its ninth year, is a two-week long festival of European arts and culture presenting free activities to D.C. metro area children and their families. There are performances, concerts, workshops, movies, storytelling and more — all brought to you by the 28 European Union member states. Highlights include Finland’s “Wow Hoop!” introducing children and infants to the joys of the circus (Nov. 2-5); “Short and Sweet,” a collection of four short animated films from Latvia (Nov. 3); “Story Telling, Irish Style!” (Nov. 5); “Colourful Games” interactive dance performance from Lithuania (Nov. 4-6); and a basketball camp with Poland’s Marcin Gortat of the NBA (Nov. 6). For a complete schedule, visit kidseurofestival.org. Various locations Through Nov. 20
Mutual Inspirations Festival: Martina Navrátilová This year’s Mutual Inspirations Festival, hosted by the Czech Embassy, honors a living sports legend: Martina Navrátilová. The Czech-American tennis great took women’s tennis to another level and inspired the world with her unsurpassed record of 59 Grand Slam titles. Beyond her victories on the court, Navrátilová has become an inspirational leader to rising stars, athletes, women, breast cancer patients and minorities, and she is an outspoken advocate for human rights and healthy living. The annual festival, now in its seventh year, celebrates the mutual influence between Czech and American cultures and the enormous personalities who have shaped this connection. Highlights include a variety of films screenings, discussions, exhibitions, fitness demonstrations and theater. For information, visit www.mutualinspirations.org. Various locations
mUsic Wed., Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Levon Ambartsumian, Violin; Evgeny Rivkin, Piano Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence with violinist Levon Ambartsumian, who studied at the Moscow Gnessin Music School and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and has performed in the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. Along with pianist Evgeny Rivkin, they will perform a program of Schubert, Brahms and works by various Armenian composers. Tickets are $95, including buffet and wine; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of Armenia
Photo: Embassy of thE sloVaK REPubliC
A children’s choir will sing carols at the Slovak Christmas Market on Nov. 5 at the embassy.
Fri., Nov. 11, 6:30 p.m.
Nadir Khashimov, Violin Nadir Khashimov’s expressive and charismatic style has made him one of the most accomplished and versatile violinists on the international music scene today, having appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Orchestra of Russia, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. Event is by invitation only; for information, call (202) 625-2361. Embassy of Uzbekistan Fri., Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Darwin Noguera Jazz Ensemble With three albums, frequently commissioned works, many recordings and performances across the United States and Central America, Darwin Noguera is considered to be a rising star in the new generation of pianists in the jazz and Latin genres. Tickets are $110, including buffet reception and wine; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of Nicaragua Sat., Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
Christopher Schmitt, Piano Christopher Schmitt, a graduate of the
Juilliard School with a doctoral degree in musical arts, is a resident pianist in the President’s Own U.S. Marine Band. While performing Shostakovich’s “Trio No 2” and the Messaien Quartet for the “End of Time” at the Phillips Collection, the Washington Post called Schmitt’s playing “carefully colored” and “sensitive.”Tickets are $25, including reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. International Student House
thEatEr Through Nov. 6
Romeo & Juliet The most famous love story in the world and one of Shakespeare’s early poetic masterworks, “Romeo & Juliet” follows two star-crossed lovers from love at first sight to eternal life hereafter. Please call for ticket information. Shakespeare Theatre Company Lansburgh Theatre Nov. 12 to 20
Washington National Opera: The Daughter of the Regiment A woman raised by soldiers must convince her “fathers” to let her
Reason and passion collide in Jane Austen’s beloved tale of sisterhood and romance. When sudden financial straits force the Dashwood family to move to a distant cottage, sisters Elinor and Marianne become ensnared in heartwrenching romances. Tickets are $30 to $75. Folger Theatre Nov. 15 to Dec. 31
The Secret Garden When 10-year-old Mary Lennox loses her parents to a cholera epidemic in the British Raj of India, she travels to England to stay with her remote and morose uncle, still grieving the death of his wife 10 years ago. Terrified of every nook and cranny of the haunted Craven Manor on the Yorkshire Moors, Mary seeks refuge in her late aunt’s mysterious walled garden, where she discovers amazing secrets. Please call for ticket information. Shakespeare Theatre Company Harman Hall Nov. 18 to Dec. 3
A View from the Bridge Internationally renowned Belgian director Ivo van Hove presents a limited engagement of Arthur Miller’s masterwork, winner of two 2016 Tony Awards including Best Director and Best Revival of a Play. Join tragic protagonist Eddie Carbone in this dark and passionate tale of family, love and duplicity. Tickets are $45 to $149. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater Nov. 18 to Dec. 24
Moby Dick Set sail on an epic adventure this
Dining CONTINUED • PaGE 38
Ocean Prime’s extensive wine and spirits program — spearheaded by beverage director Tim Manley — features 50 wines by the glass and classic cocktails with a modern spin. With 8,556 square feet, Ocean Prime boasts four private dining rooms and a lounge where can you catch a game on several televisions. Paintings by local artists can also be found throughout the space. While Ocean Prime is the newest member of D.C.’s power lunch and dinner club, over in the West End, the Blue Duck Tavern in cementing its reputation as the city’s best place for a high-powered breakfast. The contemporary neighborhood restaurant attached to the Park Hyatt is offering a dazzling autumn menu to start your busy day. Chef Brad Deboy, formerly of award-winning
Photo: hEathER fREEmaN PR
Waffle crème brûlée is among the decadent breakfast offerings at blue Duck tavern.
Vidalia, has created a smorgasbord of morning cuisine that evokes the flavors, and even the colors, of fall. Sweet potato pancakes with cinnamon sugar pecans, roasted sweet potato, red wine-poached pears, shaved chocolate and sliced almonds is such a beautiful dish to behold you almost don’t want to eat it. But you’ll be glad you did. Wanting something a little less sweet but maybe equally as indulgent? How about the fried chicken with leek soubise biscuit and an egg sunny-side up? Or a breakfast sand-
holiday season with a dramatically reimagined production of “Moby Dick,” which uses bold trapeze and acrobatic work to bring to life Captain Ahab’s harrowing quest for the legendary great while whale. Tickets are $40 to $90. Arena Stage Through Nov. 20
The Year of Magical Thinking Iconic stage and screen actress Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage to star in Joan Didion’s one-woman drama that chronicles the sudden death of her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and the illness of her only daughter. Her first-person account weaves together an intensely personal yet universal story of hope in the face of inescapable loss. Tickets are $40 to $90. Arena Stage Nov. 27 to Dec. 21
The Second Shepherds’ Play This magical retelling of the Nativity story combines beautiful music and a moving story for the holiday season, featuring the Folger Consort, the award-winning early music ensemble in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, performing festive medieval English tunes against the backdrop of this engaging mystery play. Tickets are $40 to $60. Folger Shakespeare Library Through Dec. 24
Carousel Named the best musical of the 20th century by Time magazine, “Carousel” follows Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan through their journey of love, loss and redemption and soars with unforgettable songs including “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”Tickets are $50 to $99. Arena Stage
wich with egg raclette and mapleglazed bacon on a soft flaky croissant? The BDT benedict with rainbow trout, Brussels sprouts slaw and pumpernickel hollandaise is a slightly lighter, but no less satisfying, option. If you’re looking to take care of business early — over succulent food served on white linen tablecloths with gleaming silver coffee pots that allow you to admire your business partner’s cufflinks without staring — Blue Duck Tavern is the best spot in town. WD Michael Coleman (@michaelcoleman) is the dining reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.
BlUE dUcK taVErn 24th aND m stREEts, NW (202) 419-6755 WWW.hyatt.Com/CoRPoRatE/ REstauRaNts/bluE-DuCK-taVERN EN/bluE-DuCK-taVERN-homE.html
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | NOvEMbEr 2016 | 41
WD | Culture | Spotlight
Diplomatic Spotlight
November 2016
German Unity Day Hundreds of people turned out to enjoy a crisp autumn evening on the sprawling grounds of the German Residence to celebrate the country’s Unity Day on Oct. 5. Four German Olympians were the special guests as Ambassador Peter Wittig reminded the audience that, “In this world caught up in turmoil, with raging crises, wars and instability, Olympians were peacefully united by the values of the Olympic Games.” The U.S. Air Force band Max Impact performed a rousing mix of pop, rock, soul and country, while traditional German folk songs played down in the beer garden. The terraced garden also featured staples such as spätzle with mushroom sauce and pork schnitzel. Inside the residence, a hologram of Martin Luther, specially created by the German National Tourist Office in honor of the 500th anniversary in 2017 of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, interacted with guests.
Photo: Germany.info / Nicole Glass
Photo: Germany.info / Nicole Glass
Four Olympians join German Ambassador Petter Wittig, second from right. From left are relay runner Gina Lückenkemper, canoe sprint silver medalist Tina Dietze, javelin gold medalist Thomas Röhler and canoe sprint silver medalist Franziska Weber.
Counselor at the Chinese Embassy Zhang Yan and Ambassador of China Cui Tiankai.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Martha-Ann Alito and Werner Hein of Mayer Brown.
Kerstin Mahnicke, Head of the German School Washington Petra Palenzatis, Anita Dahinden and Ambassador of Switzerland Martin Dahinden. Ambassador of Hungary Réka Szemerkényi, her husband Szabolcs Ferencz, Thorsten Kunst and Kathleen Kunst.
Danique Masingill of the Center for Military Affairs at American Humane Association and Jake Jones of Daimler.
Head of the Economic Department at the German Embassy Peter Rondorf and President and CEO of Terma Steve Williams.
British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, Lady Vanessa Darroch, Ambassador of Ireland Anne Anderson, Ambassador of Latvia Andris Teikmanis and Inguna Teikmanis.
Ambassador of Bulgaria Tihomir Stoytchev, Lubka Stoytcheva and U.S. Chief of Protocol Peter Selfridge.
Ambassador of Albania Floreta Faber and Ambassador of Ireland Anne Anderson.
Photo: Germany.info / Nicole Glass
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Darryl Burke and U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bill Hix.
Ambassador of Croatia Josip Paro and Ambassador of the Czech Republic Petr Gandalovic.
Chief of Staff of the German Army Lt. Gen. Jörg Vollmer, German Bundestag members Peter Stein and Robert Hochbaum and Mandy Hochbaum.
Social Secretaries Luncheon The Institute for Education (IFE), a nonprofit promoting leadership, civility and common ground, hosted embassy social secretaries for a luncheon at Congressional Country Club on Sept. 1. Photos: Institute for Education
Elise Ravenscroft of the Institute for Education, Asdis Hreinsdottir of the Embassy of Iceland, Kiyomi Buker of the Embassy of Japan and Sandra Pandit Cook of the Embassy of Germany.
42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
Mina Zahine of the Embassy of Afghanistan, Janet Pitt, coach Kathy Kemper of IFE and Maryam Faraz of the Embassy of Afghanistan.
Kelly Rucker of the Embassy of Singapore, Natasha Atmadja of the Embassy of Singapore and Mary Guido of the Embassy of Germany.
Gwenda DeMoor of the Embassy of Belgium, Anna Gawel of The Washington Diplomat, journalist Jan Smith and Elisabeth Herndler of the Embassy of Luxembourg.
WD | Culture | Spotlight
Nyumbani Annual Benefit
Nyumbani Executive Director Sister Mary Owens, Geoffrey Mburu and Latisha Kinyua-Mburu.
On Sept. 22, American supporters came out to toast Nyumbani for its annual benefit at the Ritz-Carlton. The Children’s Home was founded in 1992 by Father Angelo D’Agostino and Sister Mary Owens to take in orphans abandoned by Kenya’s AIDS crisis. The home currently cares for 124 HIV+ children ranging in age from 1 to 24. Nyumbani has also grown to include a respite center, a high-tech lab, a community outreach program in Nairobi and a sustainable community-based residential village. The benefit featured auction items such as a luxury African safari and singing by Grace Wairimu, who grew up at Nyumbani.
Korean National and Armed Forces Day On Sept. 29, South Korea held its National Day and Armed Forces Day reception at the ambassador’s Photos: Embassy of South Korea residence. Ambassador of South Korea Ahn Ho-Young welcomes guests.
U.S. Undersecretary of Political Affairs Thomas Shannon makes a toast.
Singer Grace Wairimu.
Kelsie Judd of Culmen International, biosafety expert Ryan Burnette and Nyumbani U.S. Board Secretary Tina Cleland.
Guests enjoy traditional Korean cuisine.
Thomas Mooney, Françoise Remington, Melinda Mooney and Mike Remington.
Dentist Jerald Epstein, former U.S. Deputy Chief of Protocol Larry Dunham, Kit Stevenson of AARP and Deborah Dunham.
U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).
Lorna Macleod; Edna Kallon of the World Bank; Achieng Masiga, program manager for sub-Sahara Africa at Johnson & Johnson’s Global Community Impact; and Karina Chen of Micato Safaris.
Gordon St. John, Nyumbani U.S. Board President Gail Dalferes Condrey, Clinton Brooks and Nyumbani Benefit Chair Charles DeSantis.
John Mulaa, Mary Mulusa of the World Bank, Minneh Kane and Bill Kane.
Garland Preddy of the Society of Government Meeting Professionals and Patrick Summers.
Minneh Kane, Oscar Ngaiza of Independent Project Analysis and Nightingale Rukuba-Ngaiza of the World Bank.
Redskins Honor British Armed Forces British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch joined British Armed Forces represented by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and British Army on Oct. 2 during the Washington Redskins home game against the Cleveland Browns at FedEx Field, where service members were honored on the field between the first and second quarter of the game. The recognition comes ahead of the Washington Redskins upcoming game at Wembley Stadium in London against the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 30 as part of the NFL International Series.
Arctic Cool at Norway Norwegian Ambassador Kåre R. Aas hosted “Arctic Cool – Not Your Ordinary Reception” on Sept. 29 at his residence. The sizzling party showcased sustainable Norwegian seafood from the Arctic, such as mackerel and fjord trout, along with music by Norwegian DJ Charlotte Bendiks and an array of performances. British Defense Attaché Maj. Gen. Richard Cripwell; British Army Maj. Ravi Chauhan; Royal Air Force Corp. Kirsty Hitchens; Katharine Clare of the Royal Navy; and Royal Air Force Wing Cmdr. Jon Beck were chosen to represent the several hundred British personnel stationed Photos: Kate Greer / British Embassy in 34 U.S. states.
Photos: Embassy of Norway
Singer Sissel Bakken, DJ Charlotte Bendiks and violinist Michelle Kim.
Norwegian Embassy executive chef Per Olav Hurv poses with a polar bear at the social media station.
British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, left, offers his analysis of the Redskins game. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016 | 43
want or expect from the government. The government doesn’t like us because we’re Muslim. They don’t like that we pray at the mosque,” he said. He was one of tens of thousands of Rohingya who fled Myanmar on board boats. “We thought, ‘Malaysia is a Muslim country; maybe Malaysia’s government will accept us because we are Muslim.’ They did not,” he said. But one year ago, he was able to make it to the United States, where the young man’s world changed. “Here, we can pray the way we want. We have a safe life. The government cares about the Rohingya,” he said.
Refugees Continued • page 15
the Guardian newspaper reported in August, when the human rights abuses that were taking place with the tacit approval of the Australian government came to light. (In April, Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled that the Manus detention center was illegal; Australia agreed to close the center but refused to resettle the detainees there. Nauru remains open.) “The Nauru files set out as never before the assaults, sexual abuse, self-harm attempts, child abuse and living conditions endured by asylum seekers held by the Australian government, painting a picture of routine dysfunction and cruelty,” the Guardian article said. Meanwhile, some 10,000 refugees from Afghanistan have been sent back to their war-torn country by authorities in Pakistan, according to an extensive report released by Amnesty International in October. Kenya is pressuring refugees in the sprawling Dadaab camp to return to Somalia. Rape is so common among women refugees from sub-Sahara Africa who pass through Libya’s smuggling routes that they told Amnesty they took contraceptive pills before traveling to avoid becoming pregnant. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar suffered for weeks on overcrowded boats in May 2015 while Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia bickered over who should help them. Those who were taken in by Malaysia have had to endure overcrowding, disease and the risk of physical and sexual abuse in detention centers, Amnesty said. UNHCR recorded 1,100 deaths at sea in Southeast Asia, mostly Rohingya refugees, from January 2014 to June 2015. More than 3,500 refugees and migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe in the first nine months of 2016. In response to this migrant crisis, European nations from Hungary to France to even once-welcoming Germany have been slamming their doors shut. Not surprisingly, the European Union, which prides itself on its strong democratic principles and respect for human rights, does not come away from Amnesty’s scrutiny unscathed. “The EU is pursuing dodgy deals to limit flows of refugees and migrants with Libya and Sudan, amongst others. Refugees suffer widespread abuses in immigration detention centres where they are held unlawfully, without access to lawyers, following their interception by the Libyan coastguard or detention by armed groups and security officers. The security forces Sudan uses to control migration have been associated with human rights abuses in Darfur,” Amnesty notes. Another myth is that rich nations are taking in their fair share of refugees. Au contraire, says
‘Education, Education, Education’ Credit: UN Photo / Evan Schneider
A group of young Somali girls is pictured at the Ifo 2 Refugee Camp in Dadaab, Kenya, which is supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Recently, the Kenyan government has been pressuring thousands to leave the sprawling refugee camp and return to Somalia.
Amnesty. The world’s wealthiest nations, including EU member states, the U.S. and Canada, have offered to resettle less than 10 percent of refugees who are looking for a permanent, safe home. Out of the world’s 193 countries, just 10 — Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey and Uganda — host more than half of the world’s 21 million refugees. (Incidentally, those 21 million refugees account for just 0.3 percent of the world’s population.) None of those countries is wealthy, but all happen to be next-door neighbors to a country that is racked by violence. Meanwhile, right-wing groups in the U.S. issue dire warnings that the Obama administration has plans to admit 110,000 refugees into the country in the next fiscal year. Jordan, which has nowhere near the landmass, infrastructure or financial wherewithal of the United States, hosts 2.7 million refugees, more than any other country. In another misunderstanding, many Americans equate the word refugee with Syrians and the word Syrians with Muslims. Neither is correct. While Syrians deserve the attention they’re getting as much as they deserve a safe haven, they aren’t the only ones seeking refuge from persecution and violence. More than 1 million people have fled South Sudan, the world’s newest nation (and one that can’t seem to find a way to keep the peace between rival politicians and their backers). The Rohingya people continue to flee Myanmar. India has for decades housed Tibetan refugees, and some of the Bhutanese who were expelled from their mountain homeland starting in the early 1990s because they had Nepalese roots have spent decades in squalid camps in Nepal. According to the State Depart-
44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | November 2016
ment, the United States admitted 84,995 refugees in the recently ended 2016 fiscal year. More than 70 percent fled five countries — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq and Somalia, “where protracted conflicts have driven millions from their homes,” the State Department said. Nearly three-quarters of resettled refugees in FY2016 were women and children. A growing number of refugee children were born in refugee camps.
Involuntary Choice Refugees leave their homelands because they have to, not because they want to. Migrants are seeking economic opportunities. Refugees are fleeing war, persecution and disaster. “A family’s decision to leave is always tragic,” said Peter Maurer, head of the International Committee for the Red Cross, at the U.N. summit on refugees and migrants. “People have lost so much. They are desperate. They no longer see any future in the place which has been their family’s home for generations. Once they are forced to move, the journey is paved with insecurity. Migrants risk being detained. Families are separated. Relatives go missing. The initial tragedy meets more tragedy,” he said. Jihan Daman has seen firsthand some of the horrors that refugees flee. She left Iraq as a refugee during the war with neighboring Iran, in 1985, when she was 15. She returned in May this year to open a trauma center in northern Iraq for internally displaced persons (IDPs), people who have been forced from their homes but have not left their country. The center serves around 100,000 IDPs — Yazidi, Christian, Arab, anyone who needs counseling. During her stay in Iraq, Daman
visited a village that had recently been liberated by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters after being held for months by the Islamic State, also referred to as ISIS. “There was the silence of death. It was a really uncomfortable feeling to think there were people there two years ago and now there’s nothing. I saw a bike outside that a child was probably playing with when ISIS invaded,” she said. She said that while she was in northern Iraq, three Yazidi girls who had been taken by the Islamic State as sex slaves asked to speak with her. “They were struggling with what they went through, with their emotions,” Daman recalled. Common mental health diagnoses among refugees include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, panic attacks, adjustment disorder and somatization — recurrent medical symptoms with no discernible organic cause. Children, who make up a large percentage of the current refugee population, are particularly vulnerable to psychological trauma. Nearly eight in 10 Syrian refugee children have experienced a death in the family; 60 percent have seen someone get kicked, shot at or physically hurt; and 30 percent have themselves been kicked, shot at or physically hurt. Almost half displayed symptoms of PTSD — 10 times the prevalence among children around the world. Daman is currently looking for funding so her Michigan-based NGO, St. Rita Family Services, can return to Iraq. Hamidul Hassan, a young Rohingya man from Myanmar (also known as Burma), told The Washington Diplomat at the UNHCR’s refugee congress in Washington that he left his home “because we are Rohingya.” “We are Muslim, they are Buddhist and we don’t get what we
Canadian Immigration Minister John McCallum told the U.N. refugee summit that countries need to provide refugees with “shelter, support but above all we need to provide education, education, education.” Anyone who’s been a refugee says education is vital but very difficult for them to access. Lucy Poni Modi grew up in Kenya with her mother and five siblings after fleeing the long civil war in Sudan that eventually led to the birth of South Sudan. She said going to elementary and high school in Nairobi was relatively easy “because nobody asks a young child for their ID. But after secondary school, you have to have papers.” Bahati Kanyamanza spent 17 years — more than half his life — in refugee camps in Uganda before he was resettled in the United States this summer. A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he says education in refugee camps, at least the one he was in, leaves much to be desired. “Many organizations focus on providing primary education,” which is not enough to help someone earn a living, he said. “A child of 14 who’s only had a primary school education doesn’t have the skills or the knowledge or the capacity to support themselves. Stakeholders need to come in and provide secondary education programs, build schools in the camps and also give refugees access to a university education,” he said. Some see the lack of education options for refugees as the UNHCR’s problem to solve. But Christopher Boian, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said the United Nations “does not do anything without the commitment and awareness and assent and the push by member states of the United Nations. It really is up to national governments and all the citizens of all the states of the world to make sure that this happens.” WD Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
WD | November 2016
around the world world holidays ALBANIA
CAMBODIA
Nov. 28: Independence Day Nov. 29: Liberation Day
Nov. 1: Birthday of HM the King Nov. 9: Independence Day
MONGOLIA
SYRIA
UZBEKISTAN
Nov. 26: Independence Day
Nov. 16: National Day
Nov. 18: Flag Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
MOROCCO
TOGO
VENEZUELA
Nov. 1: Anniversary of the Revolution
CANADA
GEORGIA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 11: Remembrance Day
URUGUAY
YEMEN
ANDORRA
CAPE VERDE
Nov. 23: St. George’s Day (Giorgoba)
Nov. 6: Commemoration of the Green March Nov. 18: Independence Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 30: Algala Eid (1967)
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
GUATEMALA
ANGOLA
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
HAITI
ALGERIA
Nov. 2: All Souls Day Nov. 11: Independence Day
ANTIGUA and BARBUDA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
CHAD
Nov. 11: Armistice Day
GABON
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
NEPAL
PAKISTAN
HUNGARY
AUSTRIA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 9: Birthday of Allama Iqbal
CHILE
INDIA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
PALAU
AZERBAIJAN
COLOMBIA
Nov. 26: Guru Nanak’s Birthday
PANAMA
Nov. 12: Constitution Day Nov. 17: National Revival Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 11: Independence of Cartagena
ITALY
BANGLADESH
COSTA RICA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
JAPAN
Nov. 7: National Revolution and Solidarity Day
Nov. 2: All Souls Day
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
BARBADOS
Nov. 3: National Culture Day (Bunka No Hi) Nov. 23: Labor Thanksgiving Day (Kinro Kansha No Hi)
Nov. 30: Independence Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 15: National Peace Day
JORDAN
BELARUS
CROATIA
Nov. 7: October Revolution Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
BELGIUM
Nov. 17: Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy
Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 11: Armistice Day
CZECH REPUBLIC
DOMINICA
Nov. 19: Garifuna Settlement Day
Nov. 3: Independence Day Nov. 4: Community Service Day
BENIN
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
BELIZE
Nov. 14: Late King Hussein’s Birthday
LATVIA Nov. 18: Independence Day in 1918
LEBANON Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 22: Independence Day
BOLIVIA
EAST TIMOR
LIECHTENSTEIN
Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 12: Santa Cruz Massacre
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 25: Anti-fascism Day
BRAZIL Nov. 2: Memorial Day Nov. 15: Proclamation of the Republic
BULGARIA Nov. 1: Day of the National Enlighteners
ECUADOR Nov. 2: All Souls Day Nov. 3: Independence of Cuenca
EL SALVADOR Nov. 2: All Souls Day Nov. 5: Cry of Independence Day
ESTONIA
PERU Nov. 1: All Saints Day
PHILIPPINES Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 30: Andres Bonifacio Day
POLAND Nov. 11: Independence Day
PORTUGAL RUSSIA
Nov. 6: Constitution Day
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Nov. 3: Independence Day Nov. 4: Flag Day Nov. 10: Independence of the Los Santos Province Nov. 28: Emancipation from Spain
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 2: All Souls Day
Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day
LIBERIA Nov. 6: Thanksgiving Day Nov. 29: Williams V.S. Tubman’s Birthday
LITHUANIA Nov. 1: All Saints Day
LUXEMBOURG Nov. 1: All Saints Day
MADAGASCAR
Nov. 4: National Unity Day
SENEGAL Nov. 1: All Saints Day
SEYCHELLES Nov. 1: All Saints Day
SLOVAK REPUBLIC Nov. 1: All Saints Day Nov. 17: Day of Fight for Freedom and Democracy
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
SLOVENIA
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Nov. 1: Remembrance Day
Nov. 17: President’s Day
SPAIN Nov. 1: All Saints Day
MAURITANIA
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 2: All Souls Day Nov. 16: Day of Declaration of Sovereignty
BURMA (MYANMAR)
FINLAND
Nov. 16: National Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 20: Mexican Revolution of 1910
SWEDEN
BURUNDI
FRANCE
MICRONESIA
SWITZERLAND
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
Nov. 3: National Day
Nov. 1: All Saints Day
BURKINA FASO
Nov. 28: Independence Day
MEXICO
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TWD: Do you think the Moroccans are provoking you into a fight? SAID: No, I think they want to see how far they can push the United Nations, because to go for a war will be very costly for Morocco. According to the peace plan, Moroccan soldiers are not supposed to be there. It’s been a red line since the agreement of 1991. This is a message to the international community. And so far, with the complicity of the French, they are succeeding to a certain point. TWD: If what you say is true, what would it take to get the French to back off ? SAID: We don’t know. We just ask
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for them to respect international legality. They must be realistic, since their interests are much more protected with a stable region without problems. If it wasn’t because of the French, the Western Sahara would be a full independent country by now. TWD: Why does Morocco want the Western Sahara? SAID: Because of its resources — phosphates, fishing. Morocco has also been inviting companies to look for oil. TWD: If Morocco loses the Western Sahara, it also means billions in revenue lost annually? SAID: No. They will gain something more important, which is stability in the region. We have made a very generous proposal to Morocco, including the sharing of resources and employment of Mo-
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roccans in the region. I’m sure if the Moroccans knew in 1975 that they would have to go through 40 years over this, they would have thought twice. TWD: Where do you get your guns? SAID: That’s not something I want to answer, but we have many sources. We have more than enough to fight. TWD: Do you want the Security Council to act within a certain timeframe? SAID: I think you touch on a very important point, and it is one of the concerns of our new president. We just sent a letter to the United Nations asking for a clear agenda — what they are intending to do, what is their timeframe, how long? They are entrusted with this issue and we are asking for a commitment to be made for our people. Will there
be a negotiation? How long will it last? TWD: What is the responsibility of the United States in this matter? SAID: As a member of the Security Council, they are one of the guarantors of peace in the world. The Security Council is not just a place to declare war. We just hope the United States will become much more forceful in implementing the wishes of the Security Council without taking sides. Not defending the Sahrawis, not defending Morocco, but treating the wishes of the Security Council like a bible. TWD: North Africa is currently besieged by terrorism and rampant corruption. Does going against the status quo and pushing for a referendum potentially endanger the region to become another North African haven for terrorism with a new government in power?
SAID: Maybe if we started yesterday, but we have been running a government for 40 years. We are touching the ground running. When there is justice, democracy, you don’t open the opportunity for injustice that fuels terrorism. We should focus on the occupation, because that is an injustice. It seems you are condemning us to failure before you test us. For sure you’ll have a better system than they have in Morocco now, where they have to kiss the hand of the king. WD James Cullum is a contributing writer and photographer for The Washington Diplomat.
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