October 2016

Education and Hotels & Travel Special Sections Inside Education A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

t

October 2016

Firsthand Lessons

Conflict Management Fieldwork

VOLUME 23, NUMBER 10

Armed with an extensive foreign policy portfolio and a hawkish worldview, Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton is positioning herself as the dependable choice to steer America through a dangerously unpredictable time. / PAGE 6

United States

Trump Plays Off Immigration Fears In Unorthodox Bid Donald Trump catapulted to the national stage last year on a platform driven by one major foreign policy issue: immigration.

Since then, the GOP presidential nominee has kept the topic at the forefront of his campaign, although his specific policies remain broadly sketched nativist calls shaped around his claim that he alone will “Make America Great Again.” / PAGE 8

Culture

From Black Panthers To Black Lives Matter A timely exhibit at the Katzen Arts Center explores the fight against racism, from the Black Panthers Party to the Black Lives Matter movement. / PAGE 34

Insights t BY CAROLYN COSMOS

OCTOBER 2016

WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

United States

Clinton Banks On Experience To Woo Voters

in Jordan Yields Surprises,

I

n a world filled with grim images of war and downbeat assessments the seemingly interminable of peace, conflict in Syria is also being viewed through surprisingly long lens the of education.

Marc Gopin of George Mason Conflict Analysis and Resolution University’s School for flicts, they’ve taken students from the in Arlington, Va., is takUnited States and ing students out of the Canada to Israel and the classroom and putting Palestinian territories, Afghanithem the ground in hotspots around the world, offering on stan, Iran, Turkey and Jordan, as well as the Balkans and a firsthand look at a civil them Northern Ireland. war Students study a region killed nearly 300,000 people, that has by some estimates ties in depth, observe and its difficulif not more, and displaced approaches to conflict resolution millions. civil development, and and directly interact with grassroots As founder and director groups living and working of in a Religions, Diplomacy and the school’s Center for World CRDC’s most recent such troubled terrain. seminar, “Approaches to Gopin’s innovative seminars Conflict Resolution (CRDC), flict Management Conand Resolution: Field Work feature lectures plus fieldwork called service learning. with Syrian Often involving Middle East con20

AFGHANISTAN

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OLD WAR, NEW FACE The longest war in U.S. history is being waged in a country whose ambassador is the youngest in Washington. Put another way, American troops have been fighting in Afghanistan for 15 years this month — nearly half the life of its 32-year-old envoy here, Hamdullah Mohib, a former refugee and computer specialist who’s now fighting against American apathy while his homeland tries to rebuild. / PAGE 11

People of World Influence

Diplomatic Spouses

Gates Reflects on Reform, Leadership

Wife Has Love of Law and Order

“Reform is not a luxury but a necessity,” writes Robert Gates, the former CIA director and defense secretary whose latest book, “A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service,” offers instructive advice for whoever becomes America’s next leader. / PAGE 4

“From the time I was 8 years old, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” said Thais Gonzalez Carballada, wife of the Costa Rican envoy, joking that with five siblings, she had to learn how to defend herself. Today, she’s continuing her education at Georgetown while using her legal background to mediate her own houseful of four children. / 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 | October 2016

11

6

31 8 34

19

NEWS 4

People of World Influence

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates offers a lesson in leadership.

6

Clinton: Consummate Insider The ex-secretary of state vows to use her extensive experience to work with allies.

8

Trump: Unapologetic Outsider The Republican firebrand has built a campaign around the incendiary issue of immigration.

10 Political Pioneers This exceptional U.S. election is just the latest in a long line of political firsts.

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18

29

EDUCATION

CULTURE

Medical Tighter blood pressure targets could potentially save 100,000 U.S. lives.

19

Far-Flung Fieldtrip George Mason students get a firsthand look at the Syrian refugee crisis.

24

Getting Schooled

Political science professors struggle to explain an inexplicable election.

Dark Stain of Racism The Katzen explores art as social protest from the Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter.

35

diplomatic Spouses Thais Gonzalez Carballada lays down the law, whether in the courtroom, at school or at home.

TRAVEL & HOTELS 27

37

Dining In

Hotels partner with big-name chefs to spice up their kitchens.

15 Cuban Realities Cuba opens itself up to American tourists, but change won’t come overnight.

REGULARS

Diplomatic Survey Ambassadors offer opinions on the U.S. election.

34

36 Portrait of Chile “Muchedumbre” offers an evolving portrait of Chile’s collective identity.

Cover Profile: Afghanistan Kabul’s young new envoy pledges progress for war-weary Afghans — and Americans.

16

Luxury of Travel The travel industry caters to luxury consumers by offering exclusive, personalized experiences.

38 Cinema Listing 40 Events Listing 42 Diplomatic Spotlight

Fruitful Merger

Corcoran photographs merge with the National Gallery of Art in “Intersections.”

45 Appointments / World Holidays 46 Classifieds 47 Real Estate Classifieds THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 3

WD | People of World Influence

Passion for Service Former Defense Secretary Gates Offers Lessons in Leadership

by John Shaw

M

ario Cuomo, a three-term governor of New York, famously remarked that political campaigning is poetry, but the act of governing is prose. While few have detected much poetry in the current presidential campaign, the next occupant of the White House will have to write a lot of prose in order to tackle the daunting foreign policy and domestic challenges facing the United States.

Robert Gates, a former CIA director who served as secretary of defense for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has written a book that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump should find instructive: “A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service.”

The goal of the book is to offer leaders specific ideas and techniques to improve both public and private sector organizations. “Reform is not a luxury but a necessity,” Gates writes.

“Failure to fix our institutions, and to do so urgently, can have catastrophic consequences for our way of life, our financial security, our national security, our freedoms, and, at times, our very lives.”

Gates worked in the U.S. government for half a century — as an Air Force officer, CIA official and member of the National Security Council. He served four administrations and eight presidents. Gates was deputy director of the CIA from 1986 to 1989, deputy national security advisor from 1989 to 1991, director of the CIA from 1991 to 1993 and secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. In addition, he was the president of Texas A&M University and is chancellor of the College of William and Mary, as well as president of the Boy Scouts of America.

He is the author of two other books, including his much-discussed “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” which touches briefly on the early periods of his government career, but sharply focuses on his four and a half years leading the Pentagon. It’s a candid and caustic account that expresses deep respect for America’s troops and profound frustration with the American political system. Gates described his tenure as a period of unending war — in Iraq, Afghanistan, against terrorism and also with Congress and the often change-resistant Pentagon bureaucracy.

“A Passion for Leadership” draws on Gates’s wealth of experiences, especially his work at the Defense Department, CIA and Texas A&M. If “Duty”

4 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

was partly a lament about the government’s frequent failure to function, this book is a guide on how to effectively run large organizations, especially government agencies.

A central premise is that Americans have a lot of government and it doesn’t always work very well. Gates chronicles a litany of government failures over the past decade and a half: U.S. intelligence lapses before the 9/11 attacks; the lack of financial regulatory oversight prior to the 2008 financial crisis; the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s handling of Hurricane Katrina; the Bush administration’s lackluster planning after the 2003 invasion of Iraq; woeful outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center; poor service at the Veterans Administration; scandals within the IRS and Secret Service; flawed initial handling of the Ebola outbreak by the Centers for Disease Control; the botched launch of the Affordable Care Act website; shifting and randomly enforced airport security rules; underperforming public schools; and the nation’s porous southern border. Surveying this record of failure, Gates finds wisdom in a comment attributed to Napoleon: “Never mistake for malice that which is easily explained by stupidity or incompetence.”

“

Failure to fix our institutions, and to do so urgently, can have catastrophic consequences for our way of life, our financial security, our national security, our freedoms, and, at times, our very lives.

”

Robert Gates

former U.S. secretary of defense

But Gates believes bureaucracies can be made to work better and describes examples from his tenure at the CIA, Texas A&M and the DoD. He stipulates that reform is hard, especially of public institutions. Among the reasons he blames for this inertia: Leaders often report to elected officials who are more focused on re-election

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense / Monica King, U.S. Army

than meaningful change; government funding sometimes flows erratically, often because of political stalemate; the quality of oversight boards is uneven and overseers often lack managerial or leadership experience; employees have substantial job security but few incentives to change; and reform often must take place under the relentless and unforgiving glare of the media.

Gates describes a number of reform efforts he led, the most striking example of which may have come from his presidency at Texas A&M. He had inherited a bold but probably overly ambitious agenda from his predecessor, Ray Bowen. After consulting with faculty, staff and students, Gates decided to narrow his sights. He settled on a farreaching but more manageable plan, communicated his vision, reached out to stakeholders and worked relentlessly to make changes while also respecting the school’s core values.

Specifically, Bowen had proposed

that Texas A&M aspire to be one of the 10 best public universities in the United States by 2020. Bowen commissioned a two-year study that resulted in a document called Vision 2020, which included 12 broad recommendations.

When Gates assumed the presidency of Texas A&M, he studied the plan and concluded it was impressive, but too sweeping to accomplish at once.

“To tackle change on so many fronts at once would be a formula for paralysis if not disaster,” he writes. So he limited his agenda to a handful of important items: hiring more faculty; increasing salaries; creating more graduate fellowships and increasing other financial aid; addressing the shortages of classroom and laboratory space; and intensifying the recruitment of minority students.

Gates explained his plan to key constituencies, established clear priorities, decided which tasks he should lead and which to delegate, and developed specific deadlines.

The most difficult part, he writes,

was implementation — “where good intentions too often go to die.” Gates argues that the key to avoiding the implementation quagmire is clarity, transparency and tight deadlines. “If I were limited to just one suggestion for implementing change in a bureaucracy, it would be to impose short deadlines on virtually every endeavor, deadlines that are enforced,” he writes.

Gates believes that leaders should take time to think and not be prisoners of their inbox. When he was in senior policymaking positions, he tried to set aside at least an hour a day to work on projects he deemed important, setting aside at least briefly the demands of others. Gates is a strong proponent of carefully organized, and strictly limited, task forces to help tackle specific problems. He argues that leaders should be disciplined and driven, but also humane.

“You can be the toughest, most demanding leader on the planet and still treat people with respect and dignity,” he writes. To that end, dismissing long-time employees should be done with respect and with public acknowledgement of their contributions.

Times of austerity and retrenchment provide opportunities to institute reforms, he argues, but adds that hard decisions should be made to eliminate functions rather than just trim at the edges or institute across-theboard spending cuts.

Gates admires those whom he describes as pragmatic visionaries — leaders with bold but achievable programs. From the government realm, he mentions Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl, Deng Xiaoping, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. From the business world, he cites Alan Mulally of Ford, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Sheryl Sandberg of Face-

Credit: DoD photo / Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, U.S. Air Force

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates walks with U.S. soldiers at Command Outpost Senjaray in Afghanistan on Sept. 3, 2010.

book, Steve Jobs of Apple, Anne Mulcahy of Xerox, Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Important leadership qualities, Gates says, include integrity, character and restraint.

“Never miss a good chance to shut up…. Silence and restraint are essential, if undervalued tools of leadership,” he writes.

According to Gates, careful planning and a steady temperament are more important than a soaring intellect. He admits that he

was never the smartest person in the room, but was successful because he was able to listen, analyze large and diverse amounts of information, come up with practical solutions and act boldly. “Being a disruptive reformer is a high-wire act, no matter how long one does it,” he writes. But he adds that leaders must know when to leave and not stay longer than they are productive.

“A Passion for Leadership” is a solid read, packed with common sense and practical

examples. Gates does not offer bold new theories of management or blindingly original insights, but his tangible suggestions to improve organizations are valuable.

I especially agree with his conviction about the importance of a focused, even limited, agenda. This is true in endeavors large and small and should be understood by the winner of the November election. “The greatest American presidents have three or four major accomplishments for which they are remembered. If a leader is too ambitious, he will dissipate his energy and focus, lose momentum, and fail. Within the broader agenda for change, a leader must choose his priorities with great care,” Gates advises.

There are two major questions related to leadership and management, however, that I wish Gates had addressed more fully.

First, is systemic reform of government even possible? Gates ran the Pentagon, the largest government agency in the world, but he focused on fixing a few major areas rather than trying to restructure its entire operations. Is it even possible to make the entire federal government more effective?

Or should government reform be viewed as an agency-by-agency, program-by-program battle?

Second, can a leader do anything to ensure that reforms endure and outlast his or her tenure? Is this too much to ask? Should we just ask leaders to make significant reforms while they are serving — and hope these reforms provide a model and inspiration for others in the future? Or does this leave too much to chance for the next generation of leaders? WD John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 5

WD | United States

Clinton’s Worldview Hawkish Ex-Secretary of State Vows to Work with Allies

by Mackenzie Weinger

D

emocratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has long been in the spotlight dealing with foreign policy issues, most notably as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

A hawkish Democrat, during her tenure at the State Department Clinton backed the surge in Afghanistan in 2009, regime change in Libya, the raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden and the administration’s pivot to Asia to counter Chinese influence.

While serving in the Senate, she famously voted in favor of the Iraq War — something she now says was a mistake based on intelligence at the time.

For those seeking insight into Clinton’s foreign policy stances through her past positions, there is plenty in the public sphere to examine thanks to her recent stint as secretary of state and her time as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009, particularly her work on the Armed Services Committee.

Even before that, however, as first lady in the 1990s, Clinton lent heft to the largely ceremonial role. At a 1995 Beijing women’s conference hosted by the U.N., she famously declared that “women’s rights are human rights,” foreshadowing her focus on the issue.

During Clinton’s 2009 nomination hearing to be secretary of state, she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “We must use what has been called ‘smart power,’ the full range of tools at our disposal — diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural — picking the right tool or combination of tools for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of our foreign policy.”

Clinton basked in high approval ratings during her tenure as Obama’s secretary of state after losing the Democratic presidential nomination to him in 2008. She applied her wonky work ethic to the job, hopscotching around the globe to visit over 110 countries spanning nearly 1 million miles. She also elevated the profile of women in world affairs, making gender equality a central element of U.S. foreign policy (during her trips abroad, she often made it a point to talk with women farmers, students, business owners and activists, among many others).

Since then, however, her record has been tarnished by pervasive questions over her use of a private email server while at State. Although the FBI decided not to pursue ALSO SEE: Immigration criminal charges over the Anchors GOP Candidate’s matter, the flap has added Foreign Policy Platform to doubts over the candidate’s trustworthiness PAGE 8 and potential conflicts of interest with the Clinton Foundation, the charitable venture run by the Clintons that aims to improve global development.

Clinton has also been dogged by the controversy surrounding the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. While several costly, Republican-led investigations on Capitol Hill never uncovered a “smoking gun” linking Clinton to security lapses that contributed to the Islamist-inspired attack on the lightly guarded mission, the tragedy continues to haunt her.

Benghazi has provided endless fodder for Clinton’s more zealous right-wing critics on the campaign trail. Beyond the largely discredited conspir6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Photo: Barbara Kinney / Hillary for America

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 8, 2016.

acy theories, however, experts continue to debate whether Clinton abandoned Libya too soon after pushing for an intervention, exacerbating the country’s descent into chaos.

While she has advocated for military interventions in the past — in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, for example, she supported airstrikes to stanch the bloodletting in the Balkans — Clinton’s worldview, like her rival Donald Trump’s, doesn’t neatly fit into one box. (She sided with Pentagon officials who wanted a more aggressive response to North Korea’s missile tests in the region, for instance, while spearheading a historic diplomatic opening with the military regime in Myanmar.)

An antiwar liberal activist in college, Clinton developed strong relationships with top military brass as secretary of state. In addition to her hawkish bent, she has also embraced an internationalist approach. She argues that America must nurture its alliances, engage in robust diplomacy and uphold a rules-based international order to promote stability, democracy and economic development. She has combined hard-nosed realism with the idealism that underpins American exceptionalism — asserting that the U.S., as the world’s “indispensable nation,” is a “force for progress, prosperity and peace.”

But looking beyond her past record, what is Clinton running on now?

Clinton’s website — which features 38 different policy proposals totaling over 100,000 words — emphasizes her strategies for ensuring that America is “stronger at home” while supporting its allies, from NATO to Israel.

She touts her “comprehensive plan” to defeat the Islamic State, which calls for taking out the terrorist group’s stronghold in Iraq and Syria on the battlefield with an intensified coalition air campaign and increased support for local forces on the ground.

“

Turning our back on our alliances — or turning our alliance into a protection racket — would reverse decades of bipartisan American leadership and send a dangerous signal to friend and foe alike.

”

Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate for U.S. president

“We will surge our intelligence so that we detect and prevent attacks before they happen. We will disrupt their efforts online to reach and radicalize young people in our country. It won’t be easy or quick, but make no mistake — we will prevail,” the candidate said during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in July.

In 2012, she reportedly advocated for an expanded program to arm vetted Syrian rebels, which was rejected by Obama but embraced two years later.

Since then, she has blamed the president for failing to create a credible fighting force early in the war that could’ve challenged Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Clinton admits that equipping rebels runs the risk of simply adding to the glut of weapons already flowing into Syria. But she insists that training the rebels is the “least bad option among many even worse alternatives” — not only because it might help defeat Assad’s forces, but also because it could prevent the Islamic State from finding safe haven in the country’s ungoverned spaces.

The U.S. must also work with European countries

to improve intelligence sharing and counterterrorism coordination, according to Clinton.

“There is much we can do to support our European partners: helping them improve intelligence and law enforcement, facilitating information sharing, working more closely at every level. There’s also more they can do to share the burden with us. We’d like to see more European countries investing in defense and security, following the example of Germany and others have set during the Obama administration,” she said in March after the terrorist attacks in Brussels. “The most urgent task is stopping the flow of foreign fighters to and from the Middle East.”

On that note, she has spoken out against “offensive, inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes all Muslims,” arguing that it could alienate law-abiding Muslims and help breed resentment and radicalism.

“There are millions of peace-loving Muslims living, working, raising families and paying taxes in this country. These Americans are a crucial line of defense against terrorism. They are the most likely to recognize the warning signs of radicalization before it’s too late, and the best positioned to block it,” she said in March.

On immigration, which has emerged as one of 2016’s most contentious issues, Clinton has called it a “clear, high priority for my administration.” She has advocated for comprehensive immigration legislation — akin to Obama’s 2007 legislation, which died in the Senate — and claims she will introduce a plan within her first 100 days. Her legislative proposal, which would likely hinge on Democrats winning Congress in November as well, involves creating a path to citizenship; ending the three- and 10-year bars on people who have stayed in the U.S. illegally and then attempt to return legally; and promoting naturalization by lowering costs and increasing access to language programs.

“I think it’s important that we move to our comprehensive immigration reform, but at the same time, stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs, and that’s my priority,” the Democratic candidate said at a debate in March.

Clinton says she will improve ties with Cuba, following Obama’s rapprochement with the communist island, and work with Congress to lift the trade embargo.

She has also appealed for the United States to take more refugees from Syria (the State Department recently announced that it hit its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees for fiscal 2016, though that is still a fraction of the estimated 4.8 million who have fled the country).w “Look, we’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II, and I think

Photo: U.S. Embassy London

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provides remarks at the London Conference on Afghanistan on Jan. 28, 2010.

the United States has to do more,” Clinton told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in September last year. “I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000 and begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in.”

On Iran, another country that has emerged as a crucial foreign policy flashpoint in 2016, Clinton said she supports the Iran nuclear deal but will hold the Islamic republic to account for noncompliance. Clinton, who was not secretary of state when the nuclear deal was finalized, has noted that she “put together the coalition to impose sanctions” against Iran during the early part of Obama’s administration — something that supporters of the accord say helped force Tehran to the bargaining table.

“My approach will be distrust and verify,” she said of the deal last September. “We should anticipate that Iran will test the next president. They’ll want to see how far they can bend the rules. That won’t work if I’m in the White House.”

Russia, meanwhile, has also taken center stage in this year’s election. Clinton, as secretary of state, in 2009 led the “reset” to spur cooperation and strengthen diplomatic ties with America’s former Cold War-era adversary. Clinton symbolically presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a big red button featuring a translation error of “reset” to herald the announcement of the hoped-for thaw in relations.

The “reset” effort has not aged well, from Russia’s annexation of Crimea to its meddling in Ukraine, for instance. And Clin-

ton, whose party has been beset by hacking incidents that some experts have linked to Russia, has called Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin “scary.”

Clinton’s website insists she will “stand up” to Putin.

“Hillary has gone toe-to-toe with Putin before, and she’ll do it again. She’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with our European allies and push back on and deter Russian aggression in Europe and beyond, and increase the costs to Putin for his actions,” her website policy page on national security states.

In response to Russia, Clinton has advocated for strengthening the alliance with NATO, which she praised in March as “one

of the best investments America has ever made. From the Balkans to Afghanistan and beyond, NATO allies have fought alongside the United States, sharing the burdens and the sacrifices.”

She also hit back on Trump’s vow to force NATO allies to pony up more resources before guaranteeing the U.S. would come to their defense. “Turning our back on our alliances — or turning our alliance into a protection racket — would reverse decades of bipartisan American leadership and send a dangerous signal to friend and foe alike,” Clinton said during a speech.

A known entity, Clinton has won backing from a number of establishment Republicans and top military officials concerned about Trump’s inexperience and temperament in the foreign policy arena.

Yet Clinton is also a career politician — and she has left behind a trail of shifting positions on foreign policy to prove it.

Armed with a hawkish though nuanced approach, Clinton has sought to present herself to voters as a stable and dependable leader in a profoundly unsettled world. Questions though continue to swirl over her past record and how her sometimes-controversial tenure as secretary of state could translate to the presidency.

But with a campaign caught flatfooted at times by Trump’s ability to drive the daily conversation — whether over the candidate’s health or her honesty — the Clinton camp has taken on a tenor of trading blows instead of policy proposals. It remains to be seen what more Clinton will offer up before votes are cast in November. WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | United States

Trump Card?

Immigration Anchors GOP Candidate’s Foreign Policy Platform

by Mackenzie Weinger

R

epublican presidential candidate Donald Trump catapulted to the national political stage last year on a platform driven by one major foreign policy issue: immigration. Since then, he has kept that topic at the forefront of his campaign, although his specific policies remain broadly sketched nativist calls shaped around his claim that he alone will “Make America Great Again.”

Trump has called for a wall to be built along the border with Mexico, paid for by Mexico — something many of America’s neighbors to the south find offensive if not outright ridiculous. The real estate mogul has also said he would deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Trump has long put Mexican immigrants at the center of his campaign — just look back to his speech announcing his candidacy in June 2015, built firmly on his hardline immigration policies.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime.

They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said.

Trump’s bid to make America “great” again was also echoed in his call that the wall, too, would be “great.”

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall,” he said in June 2015.

While a number of political commentators assumed Trump would possibly soften his immigration stance as the election neared to appeal to a wider set of voters, he instead maintained his stringent line in a speech in Arizona on Aug. 31.

“Right now, however, we’re in the middle of a jobs crisis, a border crisis and a terrorism crisis like never before. All energies of the federal government and the legislative process must now be focused on immigration security. That is the only conversation we should be having at this time, immigration security.

Cut it off,” Trump said in Phoenix, shortly after meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was widely derided for hosting the visit.

Trump also seemingly tripled down on his deportation plan, telling those attending the Arizona rally that “we will ensure that other countries take their people back ALSO SEE: Hawkish when we order them deported.”

“There are at least 23 countries Ex-Secretary of State that refuse to take their people Clinton Vows to Work back after they have been orwith Allies PAGE 6 dered to leave the United States, including large numbers of violent criminals. They won’t take ’em back. So we say, OK, we’ll keep ’em,” Trump said.

“Not going to happen with me, folks, not going to happen.”

Trump’s populist rhetoric extends to other nations, as well. He famously called for temporarily barring all Muslims from the United States before somewhat softening that position. He has since argued that people from nations with “a history of exporting terrorism” should be vetted using an ideological screening test reminiscent of the Cold War, though he doesn’t define what that process would involve.

8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks about immigration during a campaign rally in Phoenix in August.

Trump would also suspend the U.S. program to accept Syrian refugees.

Trump’s barebones foreign policy “doctrine” is predicated on putting the interests of America first, while forcing allies to shoulder more of the burden.

Some analysts have labeled the billionaire businessman-turned-reality TV star an isolationist. Trump has decried Bush-era interventions and Obama-era nation-building efforts, for example, and vowed not to “lecture” authoritarian nations on their behavior before cleaning up the “mess” at home. But Trump’s views don’t neatly fit the isolationist mold. Last month, he announced that he would boost defense spending and expand the military if elected. Indeed, his policy prescriptions often defy easy categorization or convention, for that matter; Trump once suggested he would “take out” the family members of terrorists.

But foreigners — and their presence on U.S. soil — are the hallmark of Trump’s foreign policy platform.

His attacks against immigrants have resonated with legions of disenchanted, blue-collar, white male voters, especially in rural areas, while alienating growing minority populations in urban centers.

Trump’s unapologetic lack of information on how he would implement any of his immigration proposals has also confounded experts, with his campaign surrogates often delivering conflicting accounts of this signature issue. Take former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said in early September after Trump’s speech outlining a 10-point plan concerning immigration that Trump no longer wants mass deportations and that the candidate’s policies leave “a very big opening for what will happen with the people who remain here in the United States after the criminals are removed and the border is secure.”

(Prioritizing the deportation of criminals and secur-

“

All energies of the federal government and the legislative process must now be focused on immigration security. That is the only conversation we should be having at this time, immigration security. Cut it off.

Donald Trump, Republican candidate for U.S. president

ing the border have also been key components in Obama’s immigration strategy.)

Meanwhile, GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence has argued that “Trump’s been completely consistent” on immigration, despite questions swirling around whether Trump means throwing out all 11 million undocumented immigrants or just some of them.

Trump has long been short on policy details — a point on which he prides himself, as he articulated to Time magazine in June this year by mocking Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for churning out numerous proposals.

“She’s got people that sit in cubicles writing policy all day. Nothing’s ever going to happen. It’s just a waste of paper,” he said.

In addition to several foreign policy speeches and interviews filled largely with rosy platitudes and inflammatory comments, Trump’s campaign website outlines just seven policy proposals, amounting to a mere 9,000 words. The foreign policy-related positions include compelling Mexico to pay for the wall, immigration reform and U.S.-China trade reform.

”

On the latter, Trump’s position vaguely states that “the most important component of our China policy is leadership and strength at the negotiating table” and puts the main goal of the proposal as “fighting for American businesses and workers.” A Trump presidency would immediately declare China a currency manipulator, force the country to uphold intellectual property laws and reveal its export subsidy practices, as well as boost America’s military presence in the region to help “strengthen our negotiating position.” Trump has also threatened to slap a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports, which economists say would spark a trade war and possible recession.

Meanwhile, Trump’s immigration proposal features “three core principles” that include building a wall across the southern border and having Mexico shell out the money for it; enforcing laws by tripling the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, ending birthright citizenship and enhancing penalties for overstaying a visa, among others; and requiring businesses to hire domestically before looking elsewhere. In addition, he has slammed NAFTA as the “worst trade deal in history” and vowed to renegotiate the pact or leave it all together.

Beyond Mexico, Trump has made other traditional U.S. allies nervous. The Republican candidate rattled officials in South Korea and Japan when he suggested removing thousands of American troops and the nuclear umbrella that the U.S. has maintained in both countries for decades. He has also pledged to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and said he’d consider halting oil purchases from Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies un-

Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Supporters wave signs for Donald Trump at a Veterans Memorial Coliseum rally on the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix.

less they come up with more resources to fight the Islamic State. “We will not be ripped off anymore,” he said in a March New York Times interview.

On the European front, Trump has questioned the relevance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and set conditions for defending NATO allies against attacks. He told the New York Times, for instance, that he would only come to the assistance of the Baltic States if they had “fulfilled their obligations to us.”

He has also thrust Russia, and President Vladimir Putin, to the forefront of his foreign policy agenda. Trump said he predicted he would have a great relationship with Putin,

a sharp contrast to many in the conservative establishment who have criticized the Russian president on a number of issues such as fomenting unrest in Ukraine and aiding the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Democrats, meanwhile, have seized on Trump’s praise of Putin to paint the candidate as cozy with America’s geopolitical foe, while giving its friends in the region the cold shoulder. Among other controversies, Trump joked that Putin should hack and release emails from Clinton’s server despite widespread concern that Moscow was interfering in the U.S. election; he was seemingly unaware that Putin had annexed Crimea; and Trump’s former campaign manager stands accused of accept-

ing millions of dollars from the pro-Russia party in Ukraine.

Despite condemnation from both the left and right, Trump continues to emphasize his personal approval of Putin, saying in September 2015 that “in terms of leadership, he is getting an ‘A.’” He has also praised former dictators ranging from Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un for being strong leaders.

On the issue of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Trump says he has a plan for the United States to destroy the group — which he described as a bigger danger than Syria’s Assad — and “win fast.”

“To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things. We must have the best, absolutely the best, gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world. We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now and doing it quickly. We are going to win, we’re going to win fast,” he said at the Republican National Convention this summer.

Much like many of his other policies, however, Trump’s declarations on defeating the Islamic State were big on bombast and short on specifics. Yet with just weeks left in the campaign, the candidate seems unlikely to shift away from his formula of dramatic but questionably deliverable statements in favor of in-depth foreign policy plans. WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 9

WD | United States

Presidential Firsts Caveat Elector: Careful Who You Vote For

by Karin Zeitvogel

A

s Nov. 8 approaches, the entire world is waiting to see who U.S. voters will choose to be the leader of the free world, as Americans always like to say. The next resident of the White House could be a woman, assuming Hillary Clinton has fully gotten over her pneumonia and maintains her lead in key swing states, especially after the debates. In theory, that woman could also be Jill Stein, if the environmentalist miraculously pulls off an upset while staying out of jail (a warrant was issued for the Green Party candidate’s arrest after she spray-painted a bulldozer at protests against the construction of a North Dakota pipeline).

Or America could swing in the opposite direction with Donald Trump, a reality TV star with no political experience but an unusual mix of billionaire bombast and populist appeal.

Then again, it could go with Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, who openly wondered what Aleppo was during a TV interview.

Besieged Syrian cities and geographical gaffes aside, the odds are that either a woman/former first lady or a real estate mogul/television celebrity will be the country’s next president — a first for America either way. The election would also mark the culmination of an unprecedented, unpredictable, flat-out bizarre campaign that many voters just want to be over. But as much as American politicians like to tout the country’s exceptionalism, when it comes to presidential firsts, the rest of the world has been there, done that — and might have a few lessons for Americans to learn.

Shattering the Glass Ceiling The U.S. is long overdue for a woman leader. Sri Lanka elected a woman prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in 1960, and in 1974, Isabel Perón of Argentina became the world’s first woman president. Perón was a dancer before she met then-President of Argentina Juan Perón in the mid-1950s and became his personal secretary. The two eventually married while Perón, who was 35 years her senior, was in exile. When they returned to Argentina and Juan Perón ran for president in the early 1970s, Isabel was his running mate. She succeeded her husband in office on his death in 1974. (More recently, Cristina Kirchner served two terms as Argentina’s president, after her husband Néstor stepped aside from his own four-year presidency to support her candidacy in 2007.)

10 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

The first democratically elected woman president in the world was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland.

Finnbogadóttir beat three men when she was first voted into office in 1980.

Despite her unconventional political background — she was a French teacher, director of the national theater and an occasional tour guide — she obviously did something right in the eyes of the electorate, who returned her to office three more times until she retired in 1996. Her 16-year presidency is the longest tenure as head of state by any woman anywhere.

TV All-Stars We believe Donald Trump is the first reality television star running for the presidency of any country, largely because reality TV hasn’t been around for that long. But there are parallels between reality TV and running for president, not the least of which are the constant cameras documenting your every move, along with your family’s.

There have been many actors who have run for, and some cases won, the race for the White House or similarly high offices.

Among the famous faces are:

“

Real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump, right, meets President Ronald Reagan, a former actor himself, at a White House reception in 1987.

authorities eased travel restrictions.

Before going into politics — he was governor of California from 1967 to 1975 — Reagan also worked as a radio announcer. He is the only president of the United States who has been divorced. So far.

As much as American politicians like to tout the country’s exceptionalism, when it comes to presidential firsts, the rest of the world has been there, done that — and might have a few lessons for Americans to learn.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Austrian-born body builder turned actor who is known for his roles in the “Terminator” movie series became the “governator” of California in 2003 and was reelected in 2006. After leaving office in 2011, Schwarzenegger split from his wife Maria Shriver after admitting to her that he had had a son with the family’s housekeeper. Schwarzenegger in 1984 Schwarzenegger had berated his fellow Republicans for trying to impeach President (and possible First Gentleman) Bill Clinton in 1998, saying it was a waste of time.

Ronald Reagan: The star of many a forgettable movie and a few memorable ones, Reagan was twice elected president of the United States, the first time in 1980. Reagan is credited by many conservative Americans with single-handedly bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending the east-west, communist-capitalist divide in Europe, although outside of the U.S., the fall of the wall is generally said to have been brought about by the crowds who converged on it when East German

Jesse Ventura: A Navy veteran, pro wrestler and actor, Ventura ran on a third-party ticket in the gubernatorial race in Minnesota in 1999 and won.

During the campaign, he declined to take money from special interests and said money in politics had turned the November elections into an auction.

He won the governorship on “$50 donations from the people of Minnesota.” Ventura’s candidacy boosted turnout to 60 percent, well above pundits’ predictions. He declined to run for a second term, however, though he said

”

he would’ve won if he had.

Joseph Estrada: Before he became president of the Philippines, Estrada starred in more than 100 movies and produced an additional 75. In many of roles, he defended the poor against a corrupt establishment. The powerful Roman Catholic Church opposed his candidacy for the presidency in 1998 because Estrada had admitted to cheating on his wife and Photo: Ramon FVelasquez - CC BY-SA 3.0 having four children Estrada with other women.

He beat his rival for the presidency by around 25 points, the biggest margin in a free election in the history of the archipelago nation. But two years after he was elected, Estrada was accused of corruption and stepped down months later after mass protests — a tried and tested way for Filipinos to force presidents from office. In 2007, he was convicted of plundering government funds and sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in prison. His former vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who succeeded him in office, pardoned him a month after his conviction. Estrada was elected mayor of Manila in 2013 and re-elected this year.

The Art of Politics Governing is a fine art. And some politicians have that in spades, with See fir st s • page 14

Photo: White House

WD | Cover Profile

Afghanistan’s Fresh Face Young New Envoy Pledges Progress for War-Weary Afghans — And Americans

by Larry Luxner

T

he longest war in U.S. history is being waged in a country whose ambassador is the youngest in Washington. Put another way, American troops have been fighting in Afghanistan for 15 years this month — nearly half the life of its 32-year-old envoy here, Hamdullah Mohib.

Yet as the Pentagon’s involvement in the country winds down with the pending departure of President Obama from the White House, the violence shows no sign of abating. If anything, it’s getting worse.

Afghan forces have struggled to repel Taliban offensives in provinces throughout the country, including Helmand and Uruzgan, both large opium-producing areas. The capital of Kabul has not been spared either.

On Sept. 5, suicide bombers detonated two blasts in a shopping area near Afghanistan’s highly guarded Defense Ministry, killing at least 35 and wounding more than 140 — marking the latest outburst of bloodshed in a land long accustomed to ethnic strife and instability.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the twin attacks, which were followed by a protracted gun battle in the city.

Barely two weeks before, three gunmen converged on Kabul’s prestigious American University of Afghanistan — where Mohib once worked — slaughtering 16 people and injuring nearly 40.

Taliban militants are not the only ones threatening the nation’s security. In late July, two suicide bombers believed to be associated with the Islamic State blew themselves up during a peaceful demonstration by ethnic Hazaras, killing nearly 100 and injuring 260 in Kabul’s deadliest attack since 2001.

“I saw the devastation and talked with staff members and students,” said Mohib, who arrived in Kabul for a 10day visit immediately after the Aug. 24 university assault. “Their determination to rebuild their school and keep the university open is nothing short of inspiring. I can assure you that the cowards who attacked this vulnerable target did not succeed in their attempt to stop our youth from getting a world-class education.”

Even so, the latest string of assaults has succeeded in frightening the residents of Kabul — until recently a relative island of calm in this Texas-size nation of 32 million. “The situation is really alarming. The city was under a semi-state of siege for 12 hours, and that caused a big psychological shock,” Kabul-based analyst Bashir Bezhan told the Washington Post on Sept. 7. He added that with the country’s political leadership riven by internal disputes, ordinary Afghans are in “a huge state of dismay” and no longer trust their own government.

That government, led by “visionary technocrat” and “theorist-in-chief ” Ashraf Ghani, as the New Yorker called Afghanistan’s president in a lengthy feature, named Mohib to his current post just over a year ago. In an interview with The Washington Diplomat, the ambassador — formerly Ghani’s deputy chief of staff — said misconceptions about his country abound, usually about basic things like schools and hospitals “that for us is common knowledge.” He also lamented that most Americans have no idea how much progress Afghanistan has made in everything from women’s rights to literacy to even internet access.

“Most of the news we hear is about the security situation. They don’t consider what else is going on,” Mohib told us. “We’ve come a long way. Afghanistan has made a successful political transition. That is the biggest test any democracy has to pass: the transfer of power from one democratically elected president to another. And that happened as smoothly as possible.”

After passing that first test in 2014, he said, “we also had the security transition, which means Afghan security forces took full control as we moved into a combat role against the insurgency. Then there was a third transition, the economic transition that many people underestimated.”

As the U.S. military withdrew most

“

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri of Ruggeriphoto.com

My generation grew up in wartime.

We were born in a war, and that has given us the drive to end this conflict and bring peace and stability to our country. We don’t take what we have for granted, because we have seen the worst.

”

Hamdullah Mohib, ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States

of its forces from Afghanistan, funding and employment shriveled. Mohib says between 200,000 and 400,000 people lost their jobs throughout the country, in everything from construction to food service.

“To put that into an American context, that would be equivalent to 8 million people,” he said. “It pushed our unemployment rate to 40 percent. But in one year, we managed to enact programs like Jobs for Peace to bridge this period. In any case, we’re on our way to becoming a self-reliant country, as planned.”

On Oct. 5, Mohib’s government will get to show off its accomplishments when it and the European Union jointly

host the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan — a one-day meeting at which Ghani and his chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, plan to lay out the country’s future by describing their Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework (ANPDF) and to showcase their track record on reforms.

Officials from no less than 70 countries and 30 international organizations and agencies will be there.

The purpose: to get donor nations to fund development projects to the tune of about $3 billion a year, which is roughly how much is being spent now.

“We never mention a figure, but it’s expected to remain at current levels,” Mohib said. “We hope to see the interna-

tional community endorse Afghanistan’s plan and continue their commitment to peace and state-building. Afghanistan has presented a credible reform strategy, and at Brussels we’ll present what we’ve been able to achieve.”

The conference, following up from a similar 2014 event in London, is the civilian counterpart to the Warsaw NATO Summit in July, which saw the bloc’s 28 member states commit to supporting Afghanistan’s security needs until 2020.

Also in July, President Obama announced he would leave 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan until the end of his term next January — far more than the 5,500 he had earlier hoped would be needed, but a lot less than the 40,000 troops deployed there when he took office on Jan. 20, 2009.

That’s still too many for some who say that nation-building efforts are bound to fail in Afghanistan’s tribal-based culture, which has seen perpetual conflict, from the Mongol invasions to the Soviet occupation. For others, it’s not nearly enough to sustain the progress the country has made at the cost of American lives and taxpayer money.

See afghan istan • page 12 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 11

Afghanistan Continued • page 11

Others don’t seem to care one way or another. This election season, as voters battle over issues like immigration and taxes, America’s longest — and largely forgotten — war no longer commands the attention it once did. After a steady diet of suicide bombings and other negative headlines, many Americans are ambivalent about the fate of Afghanistan.

Mohib is working to change that — and counter the perception that U.S. sacrifices in his homeland have been in vain.

“What Americans see in Afghanistan and what we see is very different. We see an Afghanistan full of opportunities, where we can build on the achievements of the past decade and a half,” said Mohib, whose wife Lael is an American convert to Islam. She also worked at the American University of Afghanistan and wrote a New York Times op-ed about the attack (see her profile in the July 2016 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

Sitting in Mohib’s wood-paneled office, lined with books and decorated with a framed portrait of Sharbat Gula — who as a young Afghan refugee girl stared from the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic, touching the souls of millions in what eventually became the world’s most famous photograph— it’s hard to imagine that the ambassador was once himself a refugee.

But he was. And not once, but twice. The first time, his family fled to Pakistan to escape the Soviet troops who had invaded Afghanistan in 1980, three years before Mohib was born. The family found refuge in Pakistan once again, when civil war broke out back home.

They returned, but soon after the Taliban began its campaign of Islamist extremist violence, his parents sent the teenager to England for his own safety.

“I was 16, and it was my family’s decision,” Mohib recalled. “Other boys my age started disappearing, and my family was worried something would happen to me too, so they sent me away. It was difficult to be on my own in a strange country.

I was lucky, though. I had the drive to get an education and managed to build a good life for myself, but there was always this burning desire to return and contribute to the reconstruction of my own country.

There’s no place like home, no matter how comfortable you are.”

As a computer engineering student at Brunel University, Mohib established Great Britain’s first Afghan student association, which eventually grew to 850 members.

That’s also about the time he first crossed paths with Ghani, an aspiring politician and former finance minister who had come to London to promote his book, “Fixing Failed States.”

“We invited him to speak to our members. It was very different than what we had heard other Af-

Credit: UN Photo / Eric Kanalstein

Above, a young girl walks across rooftops against a scenic backdrop in Herat, Afghanistan, in 2011.

At right, men walk through a field of tall grass on their way to a mosque for evening prayer in Bamyan in 2009.

ghan officials saying,” Mohib told The Diplomat. “He clicked because this is what we had wanted. We grew up in a war, so we wanted anything that would give us a way out of that war.”

We asked the ambassador what was the most striking image he remembers from his early years.

“As a child, you don’t always understand everything,” he replied.

“But the one moment I have never been able to forget is this: Outside our house where we lived in Pakistan, there was a group of mujahideen [fighters] who had returned from their time in Afghanistan. In the evening, they were shooting in the air with AK-47s, writing their names with bullets in the dark. We had people outside our doors who were hungry and waiting to be fed. And for me, even as a child, I wondered how people could afford bullets when they could not afford bread.”

Afghanistan still suffers from extreme poverty, with 39 percent of its people living below the global poverty line of $1.35 a day; for almost half the year, 60 percent can afford only two meals a day of tea and bread, President Ghani said in a Sept. 4 speech to delegates planning the upcoming conference in Brussels.

“Ending poverty across Afghanistan is the first responsibility of our government,” he declared. “But we cannot end poverty if we cannot tackle the violence, criminality and terrorism that creates and recreates both fear and desperation. These are the stakes of the reforms that our government has sworn to carry out.”

According to a slick, 18-page color brochure titled “Afghanistan: A Transformation in Progress” and handed out by Mohib’s PR people, the country’s annual per-capita in-

12 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Credit: UN Photo / Eric Kanalstein

come reached only $680 in 2014 — though that’s five times what it was 13 years earlier. Other achievements trumpeted by the Ghani administration: a GDP of $20.8 billion in 2014, up from $7 billion in 2006; a drop in infant mortality from 95 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 70 in 2013, and an increase in life expectancy from 55 in 2001 to 60 in 2012.

Today, 57 percent of Afghans have access to basic health services, up from only 9 percent in 2002. And under the Taliban regime in 2001, the country had less than 900,000 students, all of them boys. Today, that number has increased 10-fold, with girls comprising nearly 40 percent of those students.

“We have about 7 million high school graduates today, and 135 universities and institutes of higher learning in Afghanistan, public and private,” Mohib said. “That’s probably not what most Americans hear. It’s not the kind of news that makes headlines.”

In fact, the desire to make a difference back home was what led Mohib to return.

“My first job was at the American University, where I worked as director of IT, connecting AU in Kabul to the AU in Bishkek,” he said, referring to Kyrgyzstan’s capital. “In the U.K., I was working for Intel, and I lived 75 miles from London. But working in Afghanistan, I could see and feel my contribution making an impact right away. If we built a new library management system and students had access to

journals online, that immediately made their lives better. That feeling is not just mine. Every Afghan I have met has felt the same way.”

Mohib says he was working at the American University of Afghanistan, which today has 1,500 students, long before anyone had graduated from that institution.

“I know what a difficult job it is to build a university from scratch,” he recalled of those early years.

“Even finding faculty and people who were brave enough to go to Afghanistan was a challenge. There was no internet at that point — no Skype with families — and we even had to import most of the books.”

In 2009, Mohib joined Ghani’s presidential campaign as head of communications and social media, but the candidate came in fourth place out of five candidates; Hamid Karzai went on to win another fiveyear term. Ghani tried again in 2014 and won this time, promptly naming Mohib his deputy chief of staff. Only a year later, he became Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States.

In Washington, the young diplomat heads a staff of 15; Afghanistan also has consulates in New York and Los Angeles.

“Surprisingly, Afghanistan has many friends in D.C. I’ve been amazed by how much interest and knowledge there is in Afghanistan,” the ambassador said, noting the city’s large concentrations of experts and think tanks. “Many members of Congress have visited

Afghanistan and they know what’s at stake. But that is not necessarily the case everywhere. Most Americans have never met an Afghan.”

Mohib said he’s enlisting the help of not only the Afghan diaspora in the United States, estimated at about 300,000 people, but also Americans who served in Afghanistan in either a military or civilian capacity to build peopleto-people relationships. “That’s a big force that knows Afghanistan and has a connection to our country,” he said. “The vast majority of people who served there that I met feel they left a piece of themselves there. They want to see that the time they spent in Afghanistan was not a waste.”

Yet U.S. officials are often frustrated when discussing the war, which has killed more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers, injured 20,000 and cost American taxpayers in excess of $1 trillion since 2001, when President George W. Bush ordered troops there in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Despite the massive investment, Afghan security forces often continue to rely on U.S. special forces and warplanes to beat back Taliban insurgents. With so much blood and treasure having been spent in the country, Obama decided to leave 8,400 U.S. troops there — even though he pledged to end the war when he was elected.

In the face of a determined enemy, however, experts say the security situation remains precarious — and the gains Afghanistan has made are fragile. But the ambassador insists that the progress his country has achieved is “irreversible.”

Asked if those 8,400 U.S. soldiers will be enough to help Afghanistan sustain its war effort against the Taliban, Mohib replied: “We never talk about specific numbers….

[T]his was more of an American decision. This is an appropriate number for the time being. As the situation evolves, we will re-evaluate this.”

Mohib added: “The Afghan security forces are only 12 years old, but we have been able to build capabilities to fight, to take the lead in combat roles from international security forces. In 2015, the first year we were fully in the lead, the Taliban tried to test us. This doesn’t mean the war has ended, but we feel we have the upper hand. We’re getting to a stage where we will be able to protect the entire territory of Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, officials in Kabul are fighting to jumpstart the economy by launching reforms and creating opportunities for Afghans, including legions of young people. (A staggering 75 percent of the country’s population is under the age of 35.)

On July 29, after 12 years of freemarket reforms needed to meet the standards for accession, Afghanistan became the 164th and newest member of the World Trade Organization. WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo called the achievement “an endorsement of the extensive program of domestic reforms Afghanistan has undertak-

en to accelerate economic growth.” lar today. He’s trying to be effective. And to Yet as long as terrorist attacks and sectarbe effective, he has to make a lot of difficult Afghanistan at a Glance ian violence continue, that achievement may decisions, and many prominent people will mean little. get hurt in the process, because he promised Independence Day aug. 19, 1919 “Even if WTO membership opens up new he would leave us an Afghanistan we could (from U.K. control over afghan foreign affairs) GDP growth 1.5 percent (2015 estimate) markets and supply chains for Afghanistan, build on.”

Location Southern asia, north and west Unemployment 35 percent (2008 estimate) few will want to engage it on economic levels Mohib said he is in “constant contact” with of Pakistan, east of iran if the country is too unstable to sustain such the president and flies back to Kabul every Population below poverty line 36 percent transactions. The biggest issue therefore is three months for consultations.

Capital Kabul (2008-09 estimate) security,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia Like every other ambassador in WashPopulation 32.5 million (July 2015 estimate) Industries Small-scale production of bricks, expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told ington, Mohib says he is watching the U.S. textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, apparel, Ethnic groups Pashtun, tajik, hazara, Uzbek, other Germany’s DW. elections very closely, but declined to say food products, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral (includes smaller numbers of baloch, turkmen, To keep the country safe, experts say conwater, cement; hand-woven carpets; natural gas, what impact a November victory by Donald nuristani, Pamiri, arab, Gujar, brahui, qizilbash, coal, copper fronting its notorious legacy of corruption is Trump might have on his country and efforts aimaq, Pashai and Kyrgyz) key. Members of the police and armed forces to dislodge both the Taliban and the Islamic GDP (purchasing power parity) $62.3 billion National flag — who struggle with poor pay and low moState. your ad is free of mistakes in spelling an NOTE: Althoughofevery effort is made to assure (2015 estimate) Afghanistan rale — are regularly accused of making deals “Afghanistan’s relationship with the Unitcontent it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. with the Taliban, abandoning checkpoints GDP per-capita (PPP) $1,900 (2015 estimate) ed States is built on mutual interests and SOURce: cia wORLD FactbOOK and demanding the type of daily bribes that threats,” he insisted. “We have a bilateral The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, have eroded Afghans’ confidence in governsecurity agreement in place that subsequent defines our change will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. ads are considered ment. relationship,Signed so from where we look at it,approved President Ghani was elected in part on his that reforms to the customs system slashed tional leader, has a vision of faith that is un- no matter who takes office, our relationship and has been able to implement vow to tackle the country’s endemic graft, corruption and boosted revenues by 19 per- precedented wouldMark be defined parameters to in the agreePlease check this ad carefully. anybychanges your ad.

NOTE: Although every effort is made to inefassure cent yourlast adyear. is free of mistakes in spelling and a big chunk of what he promised. The things ment.” endless bureaucracy and widespread to make the final the proof.

The ambassador exhibits type of won- he did as minister of finance, we’re benefitficiency. content it is ultimately up to the customer Asked if he had anything to tell the AmeriIf the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes “Ending corruption is not a single event, ky policy nuance for which his boss, Ghani, ting from today — for example, putting in a can people directly, Mohib thought for a few The first two faxed changes made at no is cost to the advertiser, subsequent changeslicensing regime for the telecom sector. The seconds. renowned. it’s a process, ” said Mohib. will “Ourbegovernment Washington Diplomat 933-3552 George Packer’s extensive profileapproved. of theThecriticism you see was coming from(301) a very extremely to end willisbe billed atdetermined a rate of $75 percorruption, faxed alteration.

Signed ads are considered “As someone who has been a refugee at and we’re doing everything we can, at every president in the New Yorker called him “a distinct set of people who lost vastly because times, and knowing that the world today visionary technocrattowho of his reform efforts.” level. A big Please part of corruption Afghanistan again faces another huge refugee situation, __________________________________________________________ check thisinad carefully. Mark any changes yourthinks ad. 20 yearsApproved Quoting World Bank statistics, Mohib I must say that even in the best of circumwas government procurement, which also ahead, with a deep understanding of what Changes ___________________________________________________________ accounts for 10 to 20 percent of our GDP. We has destroyed his country and what might said that from 2007 to 2012 — a period when stances, nobody wants to be a refugee,” said If the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes large sums of money flowed into Afghani- the ambassador, who has two children of his want to make sure government contracts are yet save it.” At the same time, it said that he___________________________________________________________________ issued based on transparency so that we’re “has few admirers in the State Department, stan — the ratio of Afghans living in poverty own. “My generation grew up in wartime.

The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 spending our money and donor money ef- and in Kabul the elite don’t hide their con- rose from 29.7 to 31.6 percent, even though We were born in a war, and that has given us ficiently. The government established a Na- tempt. They call Ghani an arrogant micro- it should have fallen by 4.4 percent. the drive to end this conflict and bring peace “It was an inequality ruled by a group that and stability to our country. We don’t take tional Procurement Council which evaluates manager and say that he has no close friends, Approved __________________________________________________________ all ___________________________________________________________ government contracts. It also takes away no feel for politics — that he is the leader of a benefitted from corruption in the Afghan what we have for granted, because we have Changes government, to put it mildly. They suffered seen the worst.” WD the fragmentation in government procure- country that exists only in his own mind.” ___________________________________________________________________ Mohib disagrees. from President Ghani’s reform efforts right ment so we can spend that money more ef“I obviously think very highly of President from the beginning,” he said, adding that, Larry Luxner is news editor of The fectively. Buying local products integrates the local population,” Mohib said, noting Ghani,” said the ambassador. “He is an excep- “President Ghani is not trying to be popu- Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat has more than

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301.933.3552 Make sure the publication you spend your advertising dollars in is audited.

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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016 | 13

Firsts Continued • page 10

eclectic backgrounds ranging from painting to poetry.

Ivo Josipović: The president of Croatia from 2010 to 2015, Josipović has probably the best training for any head of state: He studied music and law and has taught harmony at the Zagreb Academy of Music, as well as law at the University of Zagreb.

He has composed some 50 musical opuses for symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras and soloists, and won nu- Photo: www.josipovic.net merous Croatian and Josipović international artistic awards. Josipović said that when he was elected president, he would use his free time to write an opera about the murder of former Beatle John Lennon, but instead spent much of his time shepherding Croatia into the European Union.

Edi Rama: The current prime minister of Albania came to politics via art and basketball. In a TED talk Rama gave in 2012, he talked about how, during his 11 years as mayor of the Albanian capital, Tirana, he used art — painting the drab communist buildings in bright stripes — as a way of taking back the city for the people.

“It was a form of political action in a context where the city budget I had available after being elected amounted to zero comma something,” said Rama, who Photo: Edi Rama Press in his youth played on Rama the Albanian national basketball team. “When we painted the first building, by splashing a radiant orange on the somber gray of a façade, something unimaginable happened.

There was a traffic jam and a crowd of people gathered as if it were the location of some spectacular accident, or the sudden sighting of a visiting pop star.”

The outspoken Rama demolished hundreds of illegal buildings as mayor and, as prime minister, has made fighting crime and corruption among his priorities.

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Other Notables: Irish President Michael D. Higgins is a poet. Andry Rajoelina was a disc jockey and successful entrepreneur before he became president of Madagascar in 2009, in the midst of a political crisis. Slovenian President Borut Pahor reportedly worked as a male model to pay his way through college — which

is arguably an art form. And former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was a crooner in the Bar Kontiki on the island of Elba — yes, the same island where Napoleon was sent into exile the first time around, only to escape, return to Paris and reclaim the title of emperor until he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

To Be or Not To Be Well-Read History, or current affairs for that matter, seems to have eluded some U.S. presidential hopefuls. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson drew some ridicule when he replied to a TV interviewer, “What is Aleppo?” when asked what he would do, if he were elected, about the Syrian city that has borne the brunt of the country’s fighting.

Besides being the most besieged city in Syria, and the epicenter of the still growing refugee crisis, the ancient city of Aleppo is mentioned in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” This is what Witch 1 says in Act 1, Scene 3, referring to a woman who refused to share her chestnuts with the old hag: Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o ‘th’ Tiger; But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, And like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

To “do” someone in Shakespearean times was apparently not a good thing.

In an interview in March with Argentina’s Buenos Aires Herald, Columbia University English and comparative literature professor James Shapiro said every leader should read Shakespeare and learn lessons from the Bard, but few do.

“There are really no successful leaders in Shakespeare. He puts them under a magnifying glass and even the best of them, like Henry V, died and left their successor in a mess,” Shapiro said.

Two of the U.S. exceptions, he said, were Presidents Bill Clinton and Abraham Lincoln, who Shapiro called “the greatest president of the U.S, and maybe one of the greatest leaders.” Lincoln “always carried a couple of Shakespeare works with him,” Shapiro noted.

As for more contemporary U.S. leaders, Shapiro said he has not asked President Obama or Hillary Clinton if they are keen readers of Shakespeare’s work.

As for Donald Trump, he said, “I don’t think he reads Shakespeare, but I could be wrong because he is doing so well.

“Maybe he has read some of those plays, like Richard III when he rises to the top.” WD Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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14 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Photo: Albinfo - Own work / Wikimedia Commons via CC BY-SA 3.0

Colorful homes line the Lana River in the Albanian capital of Tirana. Former Mayor Edi Rama, an artist, painted over the drab Soviet-era buildings.

WD | Caribbean

Separating Fact from Fiction Cuba Opens Itself to American Travelers, But Change Won’t Come Overnight

by Larry Luxner

S

ANTA CLARA, Cuba — On Aug. 31, JetBlue became the first airline ever to offer direct commercial jet service between the United States and Cuba, when its Flight 387 from Fort Lauderdale touched down shortly before 11 a.m. at Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaría International Airport.

The flight, marked with melodramatic speeches, water-cannon salutes, ribbon cuttings and parties at both ends, “symbolizes our historic long-term commitment” to providing low-cost service between the two former adversaries, JetBlue President and CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement. “For the first time in decades, families separated by only a short stretch of water can easily and affordably visit a loved one, attend an important occasion or visit a special place.”

Just in case any traveler should forget that fact, Gate F6 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport — which JetBlue has dedicated exclusively for Cuba flights — now sports a huge wall map showing the airline’s existing and planned routes between Florida and the Cuban cities of Havana, Santa Clara, Camagüey and Holguín.

There’s also an infographic highlighting the fact that in 2015, Cuba received 3.5 million foreign visitors, about 161,000 of whom came from the United States — up 77 percent from 2014.

On top of that, arrivals through the first six months of 2016 nearly doubled compared to the first half of last year. Despite the jump in American tourism to Cuba and the diplomatic thaw between the Cold War-era rivals, misperceptions about the implications of this historic rapprochement abound.

Most notably, the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist island, which only Congress can lift, remains firmly in place. Americans can legally travel to Cuba only if their trip falls under one of 12 categories of authorized travel, such as professional research, humanitarian missions, religious travel or diplomatic business — though this requirement is now a technicality based on the honor system.

Meanwhile, progress in Cuba has been uneven. On the one hand, Cubans have benefited from an economic opening that has introduced a modicum of capitalist enterprise to the island. Cell phone usage is on the rise, while propaganda-laden billboards are less noticeable.

On the other hand, poverty remains entrenched and internet access remains highly restricted, as does any form of political dissent. And while the Obama administration has significantly eased U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba, many Americans aren’t aware that they can now essentially hop on a plane and visit the island that’s 90 miles from Florida’s shores.

On Sept. 9, just over a week after that inaugural flight, I decided to board Flight 387 myself for a long weekend in Cuba; it had been 12 years since my last visit to the island. Back then, Fidel Castro — not his brother Raúl — was still running the show, the U.S. dollar was still widely used and public WiFi was unthinkable, so I was more than a little curious to see how life in communist Cuba had changed — and not changed.

Although I could no longer book any of the $99 introductory one-way airfares widely advertised online, my $436 round-trip ticket all the way from Baltimore, Md., with a one-hour connection in Florida was a relative bargain; only a few years ago, such a trip would have cost $900 on a charter airline, not to mention the hassle of obtaining a license through the Treasury De-

Photo: larry Luxner

Horse-drawn carriages and 1950s-vintage American cars dominate the streets of Santa Clara, a city of 200,000 located 175 miles east of Havana.

“

Any American can legally just hop on a plane to Cuba and follow their own itinerary under the peopleto-people category…. The majority of Americans simply aren’t aware of this.

Christopher Baker author of the ‘Moon Cuba’ guidebook

”

partment’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

But virtually none of my fellow passengers were tourists in the true sense. Most of them appeared to be Cuban-Americans returning — some of them for the first time in decades — to the land of their birth to see family and friends.

Before boarding, each of us had to fill out applications for Cuban tourist visas ($50 each, payable by credit card) and complete a form explaining the purpose of travel; a JetBlue employee told me this information is sent to Cuba before the flight lands to avoid any problems on the ground.

At precisely 11:18 a.m., our Airbus lifted off, heading east over the Atlantic, banking southwest over the Florida Keys and turning east again before touching down in Santa Clara only 43 minutes later. The 100 or so passengers on board applauded loudly, a few of them overcome with emotion. Many took selfies as they clambered down the waiting staircase and boarded buses for the short trip to the arrivals terminal.

It’s not clear why Abel Santamaría Airport in Santa Clara — a sleepy provincial capital of 200,000 — was

chosen to receive the first direct commercial U.S. flight in more than 54 years. Perhaps it’s thanks to the airport’s 9,900-foot asphalt runway, which ranks as the sixth longest in Cuba.

Or maybe it’s because of Santa Clara’s location in the center of Cuba, about 175 miles east of Havana. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear: Contrary to what many people may think, this city is not crawling with American tourists — or tourists of any kind — and is not likely to be for some time.

“The Cuban government is very conscious that Havana’s hotels are already maxed out, and I think it would like to see more tourism dispersed to the provinces,” said Cuba travel expert Christopher Baker, author of the “Moon Cuba” guidebook. “That said, the majority of passengers on these provincial flights will undoubtedly be Cuban-Americans returning to visit family outside Havana.”

In fact, even though it’s dramatically easier for Americans to visit Cuba now than at any time since the U.S. trade embargo took effect in 1961, that embargo (or “blockade” as the Cuban government calls it) is still in effect — contrary to popular opinion — and will remain so unless Congress votes to abolish it.

For now, Santa Clara’s main tourist attraction is its sprawling Che Guevara Mausoleum, a shrine to Cuba’s iconic revolutionary (many in South Florida instead view him as a “cold-blooded murderer”). Here, visitors can see artifacts ranging from the porcelain enamel “Villa Chichita” street sign from the Argentine village where the future revolutionary grew up to the black field telephone Guevara used in the 1958 battle of Las Villas.

Not far away is Tren Blindado, the site of a famous 1958 train ambush by Fidel Castro’s rebels against the Batista regime they overthrew a year later. Many museums and historic buildings front Santa Clara’s See c u ba • page 47 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 15

WD | United States

What They Really Think Online Poll Surveys ambassadors’ Opinions of clinton, trump, U.S. election by anna GaweL

W

hen it comes to diplomats commenting on the U.S. election, they don’t. That’s not to say they don’t have an opinion. A key part of their jobs is reporting on America’s presidential contest to their governments back home — trying to make sense of a race that has baffled Americans and foreigners alike.

But diplomats generally refrain from talking about the candidates in public, lest they appear to be interfering in America’s domestic politics — and potentially badDemocratic candidate mouthing a future president. Decorum ne- Hillary Clinton cessitates discretion.

Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that the possibility of Donald Trump capturing the White House has many diplomats on edge. The GOP candidate has inflamed Mexicans, Muslims, traditional allies and many others with his fiery rhetoric, and his grasp of foreign affairs pales in comparison to his established Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton (also see stories on pages 6 and 8).

A recent poll conducted by Ipsos, a global market and opinion research firm, on behalf of The Washington Diplomat confirmed these perceptions. The anonymous online survey sampled roughly 30 ambassadors from June 27 to July 29 and found an overwhelming majority — 60 percent versus 7 percent — would vote for Clinton over Trump if given the chance. Likewise, 77 percent of respondents described Clinton’s foreign policy credentials as “very strong,” while none said the same of Trump, with 73 percent calling his understanding of world affairs “not at all strong” (statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls).

European diplomats tended to be the least supportive of Trump, with one ambassador anonymously labeling him “an idiot.” Another respondent described him as an “untrustworthy egomaniacal equivocator.” Conversely, Clinton — a known entity who has worked in government for years — was referred to as “predictable” and “stable.”

Trump has touted his unpredictability as an asset on the world stage,

though that may be cold comfort to diplomats concerned by the populist, isolationist approach he espouses.

Some diplomats, however, pointed out that campaign rhetoric should be taken with a grain of salt — and Trump’s controversial positions may not indicate how he’d actually govern. Interestingly, three diplomats from the Middle East said they weren’t concerned about a Trump presidency. When one was questioned about Trump’s suggestion to restrict Muslims from entering the U.S, he said: “We don’t think he was serious. If you Republican candidate noticed, when he announced this, it was the Donald Trump first time he read from prepared remarks.”

Extrapolating definitive conclusions about how ambassadors view each candidacy, however, is impossible, given the relatively small sampling size and anonymity of the results. But the survey does reveal some interesting clues into what issues are important to diplomats and which candidate might best promote those issues (Trump lost to Clinton on every issue).

“Given the lack of any other barometer for the opinion pulse of the diplomatic community, this limited study does provide unique insights into their general sentiment,” Ipsos’s Kaitlyn McAuliffe told The Diplomat. “In fact, 90 percent of respondents indicate that their home country is closely following the U.S. presidential election this year.”

She added that even though the internal policies of embassies prohibit them from publicly discussing U.S. politics, this study is unprecedented in the 2016 election cycle. “While 90 percent of respondents trust Hillary Clinton to maintain existing agreements and relationships, only 20 percent trust that Donald Trump would do the same,” McAuliffe said, pointing out the inescapable conclusion of the poll: “The findings of the study indicate the diplomatic community in the U.S. is more comfortable with the U.S. electing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton than entrepreneur Donald Trump.” WD Anna Gawel is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

PhOtO: Phc c.m. FitzPatRicK - UniteD StateS DePaRtment OF DeFenSe

16 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016

Q1. In which region of the world is your home nation?

Americas Middle East Africa Europe Asia and Pacific

30% 7% 7% 43% 13%

Q2. How long have you been stationed in the United States?

Less than a year 1-3 years 4-8 years 9 or more years

7% 43% 33% 17%

Q3_1. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Trade and Investment

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

77% 23% 0% 0%

Q3_2. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

International Security

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

87% 13% 0% 0%

Q3_3. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Defenses sales and support

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

30% 43% 27% 0%

Q3_4. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Development assistance

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

43% 37% 20% 0%

Q3_5. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Terrorism

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

73% 27% 0% 0%

Immigration 20% 37% 43% 0%

Q3_7. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

International rule of law

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

57% 43% 0% 0%

Q3_8. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Stability of the Global Economy

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

Q6_6. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Hillary Clinton

Immigration

Very familiar

Somewhat familiar Not very familiar

Just know the name Never heard of

90% 10% 0% 0% 0%

Q4_2. How familiar, if at all, are you with the following U.S. presidential candidates?

Very familiar

Somewhat familiar Not very familiar

Just know the name Never heard of

53% 37% 10% 0% 0%

Q5. How closely, if at all, is the leadership of your home country following the U.S. presidential election this year?

Very closely

Somewhat closely Not very closely Not at all closely

Don’t know

57% 33% 7% 0% 3%

Q6_1. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Trade and investment

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

0% 3% 13% 33% 33% 7% 10%

Q6_2. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

International security

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

7% 3% 3% 13% 60% 3% 10%

Q6_3. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

83% 13% 3% 0%

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

3% 10% 27% 10% 27% 7% 17%

Q6_4. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Development assistance

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

0% 0% 3% 2 3% 53% 7% 13%

Q6_5. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Terrorism

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

3% 3% 3% 27% 40% 10% 13%

Q6_7. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Donald Trump

Defense sales and support

Q3_6. How important are each of the following issues in the context of your country’s relationship with the United States?

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

Q4_1. How familiar, if at all, are you with the following U.S. presidential candidates?

7% 7% 20% 10% 37% 7% 13%

International rule of law

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

0% 0% 17% 17% 50% 3% 13%

Q6_8. Which presidential candidate do you think would be better for your country on the following issues?

Stability of the Global Economy

Strongly Donald Trump

Slightly Donald Trump Both the same

Slightly Hillary Clinton

Strongly Hillary Clinton Neither

Don’t know

0% 0% 10% 27% 47% 3% 13%

Q7. How important do you think foreign policy and security issues are to American voters?

Very important

Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

Don’t know

13% 43% 40% 3% 0%

Q8_1. To what extent, if at all, do you trust Hillary Clinton to maintain existing agreements and relationships?

Very much

Somewhat A little Not at all

Don’t know

73% 20% 0% 3% 3%

Q8_2. To what extent, if at all, do you trust Donald Trump to maintain existing agreements and relationships?

Very much

Somewhat A little Not at all

Don’t know

3% 17% 43% 27% 10%

Q9_1. How strong are the foreign policy credentials of Hillary Clinton?

Very strong

Somewhat strong Not very strong Not at all strong

Don’t know

77% 13% 0% 3% 7%

Q9_2. How strong are the foreign policy credentials of Donald Trump?

Very strong

Somewhat strong Not very strong Not at all strong

Don’t know

0% 3% 17% 73% 7%

Q10. Hypothetically, if you could vote in the U.S. presidential election, which candidate would you support?

Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump None of these

Don’t know

60% 7% 13% 20%

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 17

WD | Medical

New Target Tighter Blood Pressure Control Could Save 100,000 U.S. Lives: Study

by Karen Pallarito

High-risk adults would benefit from intensive program to lower systolic reading

E

ngaging Americans at high risk for heart disease in aggressive efforts to lower their blood pressure could save more than 100,000 lives a year, a new analysis indicates.

Current guidelines recommend a systolic pressure — the top number in a blood pressure reading — of below 140 mm Hg. But a 2015 study from the U.S. National Institutes of Health suggested more lives could be saved if the goal was less than 120 mm Hg. The NIH trial known as SPRINT included adults ages 50 and older with systolic readings of 130 to 180 mm Hg and at high risk of heart disease (but not diabetes or stroke).

They had either intensive treatment, with a goal of lowering systolic pressure to less than 120 mm Hg, or standard treatment, with a target of less than 140 mm Hg. The results were so impressive that NIH halted the trial early. Risk of death from all causes was 27 percent lower in the intensive treatment group, and death from cardiovascular causes was 43 percent lower for those patients.

What if all U.S. adults with a high risk for heart disease were treated as aggressively? That’s the question that Dr. Holly Kramer, an associate professor of public health sciences and medicine at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and her team sought to answer in the new study.

“I think that people have generally become comfortable with the blood pressure targets that we currently have,” Kramer noted.

Using 1999-2006 health data from a nationally representative survey, researchers determined that 18 million U.S. adults met the criteria of the NIH trial.

Based on an annual death rate of 2.2 percent for that population, they predicted that 107,000 deaths could be prevented each year through intensive systolic blood pressure lowering.

Of the 18 million, close to 9 million had systolic readings at the higher end of the spectrum — 145 mm Hg or greater. And their annual death rate was 2.5 percent. But with intensive control, researchers projected that 61,000 deaths would be avoided each year.

If the results of the NIH trial are correct, “many, many lives would be saved,” said Steven Houser, president of the American Heart Association (AHA). “It’s an interesting prediction.” (Houser is senior associate dean of research at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.)

But how low should the bar be set? Experts are wrestling with that question.

A task force of the AHA and American College of Cardiology (ACC) is expected to issue guidance sometime during the second quarter of 2017.

Dr. Carl Pepine is a past president of the ACC and a professor of medicine at the University of Florida.

Despite SPRINT’s stunning results, Pepine said some European scientists question the findings be-

18 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

“

There’s no question that lower is better, but now the actual target level is now open to question….

At the present time, I don’t think there’s a strong compelling reason not to shoot for a lower blood pressure target, even in an older patient, knowing this dramatic benefit that can result.

Dr. Carl PepinE, professor of medicine at the University of Florida

cause the outcomes are based on automated blood pressure readings. In other words, no health care workers were present when blood pressure readings were recorded.

The intent, he said, was to minimize patients’ “white coat,” or stress response, to having their blood pressure taken in a doctor’s office.

“There’s no question that lower is better, but now the actual target level is now open to question,” he said.

There are also potential side effects to lowering blood pressure too far. It can cause dizziness and, potentially, falls and broken bones, particularly in an older population.

But that was not the case in the NIH study, Pepine noted. Patients had frequent visits with clinicians to tweak their medication regimens.

“At the present time, I don’t think there’s a strong compelling reason not to shoot for a lower blood

”

pressure target, even in an older patient, knowing this dramatic benefit that can result,” he added.

The new findings were presented Sept. 15 at an AHA meeting on high blood pressure, in Orlando, Fla. Research presented at scientific meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peerreviewed journal. WD Karen Pallarito is a HealthDay reporter. Copyright © 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

LEARN MORE: For more information on controlling blood pressure, visit the American Heart Association at www.heart.org.

Education A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

•

October 2016

Firsthand Lessons Conflict Management Fieldwork in Jordan Yields Surprises, Insights •

by Carolyn Cosmos

Students sit outside George Mason University in Virginia.

Photo: Alexis Glenn / Creative Services / George Mason University

I

n a world filled with grim images of war and downbeat assessments of peace, the seemingly interminable conflict in Syria is also being viewed through the surprisingly long lens of education.

Marc Gopin of George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in Arlington, Va., is taking students out of the classroom and putting them on the ground in hotspots around the world, offering them a firsthand look at a civil war that has by some estimates killed nearly 300,000 people, if not more, and displaced millions.

As founder and director of the school’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC), Gopin’s innovative seminars feature lectures plus fieldwork called service learning. Often involving Middle East con-

flicts, they’ve taken students from the United States and Canada to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Jordan, as well as the Balkans and Northern Ireland. Students study a region and its difficulties in depth, observe approaches to conflict resolution and civil development, and directly interact with grassroots groups living and working in a troubled terrain.

CRDC’s most recent such seminar, “Approaches to Conflict Management and Resolution: Field Work with Syrian See Refugees • page 20

Photo: Caroline Chewning

George Mason University professor Marc Gopin leads a discussion at the Happiness Again Malki Center, a children’s trauma treatment facility in Jordan, as part of a course working on with Syrian refugees.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 19

Refugees Continued • page 19

Refugees,” took a group of students to Jordan this past August. The course is taught by Gopin and Hind Kabawat, CRDC’s director of interfaith peacebuilding and a member of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee in Geneva. It has attracted more than 100 graduate students from a dozen universities in the three-plus years of its existence — including local students from Georgetown, George Washington University and American University, according to Michelle Everson, associate director of CRDC. The idea is to train future negotiators, policymakers, activists or business people so that they can be well-versed in the intricacies of conflicts or post-conflict zones.

Looking toward that future, Gopin and his colleagues also sponsor conferences, workshops, online classes and business development programs. They host diplomats, scholars and peacemakers from around the world; the faculty and staff also engage in social media outreach, practical peace building and scholarly research.

As a scholar, Gopin specializes in the positive and negative roles that religion can play in conflict resolution. As a practitioner, he has taken part in back-channel negotiations to bring together parties not able to meet in public. And as a teacher, he has taught lessons on peacebuilding strategies that can be used in “intractable” arenas.

Gopin’s approach to international conflict resolution starts with the individual, not the nation.

“Most conflict resolution is focused on state-to-state actors,” Gopin recently told The Diplomat, saying that while such efforts “may be doing good work,” it’s “a difficult and complex process to bring these efforts to the grassroots level.”

In contrast, Gopin starts at the bottom to effect change at the top.

“I’ve taken social network theory and made it into peace building.

We create a series of partnerships that build trust” and can support a healthy society, he said.

Efforts of this kind are dramatically underfunded, Gopin argues.

“Who is paying to create a civil society in Syria?” He says that while the “key to violence mitigation is reciprocity and trying to figure

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“

You’re sitting at a table with a kid who’s seen her sister get her head cut off. It breaks your heart but gives you a sense of motivation: How can you solve the issues at hand so things like this don’t happen in the future?

”

Caroline Chewning, graduate student at George Mason University

out a way to take in each other’s position,” the amount of money devoted to civil society in the Middle East is “miniscule” while “billions for weapons systems” pour into the region.

Underfunded and undeterred, CRDC programs are hammering away at peace and development “on the frontlines in both Turkey and Jordan.”

They’re working with both battle-weary Syrians and eager young Americans.

One of those U.S. students is Caroline Chewning, 28, a former political science undergraduate who grew up in Middleburg Va., has lived in South Africa and is now a graduate student at George Mason. She works in international government relations at United Technologies in D.C. and the company provided her with a scholarship to take the Jordan course.

Chewning, who said she is interested in the Middle East and refugee work, was one of nine students enrolled in the summer program. (A previous March course had 35 students.)

CRDC’s approach is important, Chewning said, because her generation is more aware of global conflicts and is “more willing” and able to address them. That includes going in to “plant the seeds” of peace and development, she said, and then giving locals the tools to do the rest.

Chewning’s travel companion, Elizabeth O’Hara, 23, is a master’s degree student studying democracy and governance at Georgetown University with an emphasis on economic issues and Eastern and Central Europe. This was the second class she’d taken in the program; the first took her to Bosnia.

O’Hara said she liked the CRDC’s focus on partnering and listening, recalling that most of the Syrian adults she met in Jordan told her, in effect: “We don’t want your sympathy. We want your help.” O’Hara said that

Photo: Ron Aira / Creative Services / George Mason University

George Mason students roam the library at the Antonin Scalia School of Law on the Arlington campus.

news coverage of war in the Middle East had a “desensitizing effect” and that the CRDC course was one way to counter the apathy.

Students spent nine days in Jordan, where they listened to lectures, made various site visits in the field and engaged with the local population.

Mindful of safety, Everson noted that CRDC follows guidance from the State Department, which currently does not have a travel alert or warning for Jordan. The school also encourages students to travel in groups during their free time, devises a communication strategy if something goes awry and teaches them how to be respectful in a host country.

In addition to field trips, the Jordan course included a detailed syllabus and research paper that needed to include “bold recommendations” for conflict-resolution projects or interventions.

Students visited five sites serving Syrian refugees, each chosen for its effectiveness and élan — including schools, hospitals, a trauma center for children, a women’s center and an adult rehabilitation program. The See Refugees • page 22

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 21

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Refugees Continued • paGe 21

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visits appeared to provide some of the program’s most enlightening experiences, starting with an Aug. 15 field trip to Project Amal ou Salam, an NGO that means “hope and peace,� in Jerash, located about an hour and a half from Amman. “The hallmark of our program is the partnership with Project Amal ou Salam,� Everson told us by email, “founded by Nousha Kabawat, a graduate of our School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Project Amal ou Salam supports Syrian children’s education in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria� and has touched the lives of at least 5,000 children. “We visited Amal ou Salam twice,�

Chewning said, noting that the founder, Nousha Kabawat, is Hind Kabawat’s daughter. There, the children, ages 7 to 15, where divided into two classrooms where both academic and emotional needs were addressed. The visitors shared letters with the Syrian refugees from students in Bosnia affected by the Balkan wars, a project organized by George Mason graduate Asia Odum.

The messages to the Syrian children were simple and moving: “Don’t give up hope.� “It will end.� “It always gets better. “We send you love across the world.�

Equally moving and illuminating, both Chewning and O’Hara said, was a midweek visit to a children’s trauma treatment facility in Amman called the Happiness Again Malki Center. “It treated children who had been kidnapped, witnessed kidnappings and

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22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016

beheadings and had arrived extremely fearful,” O’Hara explained.

The adults, who brought Play-Doh along with them, partook in enthusiastic face painting with the children and discussed their favorite colors with the help of translators.

“You’re sitting at a table with a kid who’s seen her sister get her head cut off.

You can’t take the memory away but you can bring in positive ones,” Chewning observed.

It was clear to the CRDC students that “the point is to keep hope and positivity and light” in these children’s lives, Chewning said. “It breaks your heart but gives you a sense of motivation: How can you solve the issues at hand so things like this don’t happen in the future?”

On Aug. 16, the CRDC group had a meeting at the Women’s Center in Amman. The visit dovetailed nicely with Gopin’s stated belief that “women’s empowerment leads to less violence.” It also matched up with Hind Kabawat’s work to empower women and her role in the Syrian peace talks.

“Violence in conflict does not discriminate. Men, women and children suffer from starvation, bombings, forced disappearances and torture. They equally experience traumatic loss when driven out of their homes,” Kabawat wrote in a July 21 Huffington Post piece along with Swedish Foreign Affairs minister Margot Wallström.

“Yet, it is men that clearly dominate the negotiation about Syria’s future.

By far, men outnumber women in the ranks of the International Syria Support Group. Men outnumber women in the Syrian negotiating parties. Any sidelining of women from the peace process will have serious consequences for Syria as well as Europe’s future,” they warned.

Children enjoy face painting as part of their therapy at the Happiness Again Malki Center in Amman.

Photo: Caroline Chewning

The emphasis on equality in developing solutions to conflicts was vividly illustrated at the Amman women’s center, where Syrian, Palestinian and Iraqi women, led by Kabawat, held a brainstorming session with the U.S. student group.

They wanted the Americans’ entrepreneurial advice on their small-business ventures, which included making soap or chocolate to sell in Jordan — advice they said they could also pass along to their daughters.

“At first it was very quiet,” O’Hara recalled. “It was a very religious group and everyone was covered — eyes only, black gloves. But as it proceeded, more and more women spoke up and one became very vocal. She joked that when she goes back to Syria, she’s going to be mayor of her town and shouted out workshop ideas focused on micro-financing for small businesses, women’s self-defense classes, leadership and conflict resolutions skills and study skills for the children.”

“In the end some of us were singing and dancing,” Chewning added. “It’s amazing the connections you feel even when the differences are so big.” WD Carolyn Cosmos is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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WD | Education | Politics

Politics as Unusual Professors Try to Explain Divisive, Unpredictable U.S. Election •

W

by James Cullum

hat are educators at top-notch political science schools in the nation’s capital telling their students about one of the most divisive U.S. presidential elections in history?

Donald Trump waves to supporters at a campaign rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

Photo: Gage Skidmore

“There is something really different and crazy going on every day in the political arena and there’s no way to predict it, and people continue to watch it because it’s so unpredictable and it is so crazy,” Steven Billet, director of the legislative affairs master’s degree program at George Washington University, told The Washington Diplomat. “It’s a form of entertainment. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.”

Asking “what stuff?” almost seems silly for anyone with a smartphone, social media account or internet connection.

24 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Democrat Hillary Clinton continues to dodge questions about her trustworthiness amid a litany of political scandals, while her opponent, Republican Donald Trump has ascended to the top of the GOP ticket through a seemingly reckless use of anti-establishment rhetoric and showman ability to make headlines that would have likely doomed any presidential hopeful throughout history.

Billet, who teaches legislative politics, political action committee management and international advocacy classes at GW, said that anti-establishment narra-

tives are now an important part of the Washington political landscape.

“One of the things I impress on my students is that the themes we see here did not emerge from this campaign, but from other issues in the sorting of ideological radicalism mostly on the political right,” he explained. “We saw attempts by former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to discipline the Tea Party movement and the Freedom Caucus, and the result was that they threw him out of office. So there’s a vocal, empowered minority, especially on the right,

“

There is something really different and crazy going on every day in the political arena and there’s no way to predict it….

It’s a form of entertainment. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.

Steven Billet

”

director of the legislative affairs master’s degree program at George Washington University

that is able to defy congressional leadership and party leadership.

And what we see in primary and general elections is that these antiestablishment candidates end up running and owning their party.”

Matt Dallek, an associate professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, says that Trump’s campaign is the “Tea Party on steroids.”

“I don’t attack or criticize Trump in class, but what I try to do is make students understand why things have played out the way they have so far,” he said.

“But Trump is so extreme and erratic and crazy and the language he uses is so incendiary. There is something really unstable about the guy.”

Dallek said that while Clinton’s image has been tarnished by the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state, she may still win by a wide margin.

“The Republican party has nominated a conspiracy theory-

loving, misogynistic, bigoted candidate, who if he loses substantially, people will say he ran one of the worst major party general campaigns since McGovern,” Dallek said, referring to the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern. “If she wins by six or seven points, like Obama in 2008, it speaks to the argument that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-S.C.) made that Trump is an Electoral College disaster.”

Charles A. Stevenson spent over 20 years working in the U.S. Senate and for the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, and now teaches courses in American foreign policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Foreign Policy Magazine recently ranked the school second in the nation for international studies.

“I try my best to not let my political views show. My students are voters, too. They have to make up their own minds,” Stevenson told us. “Trump is such an unconvenSee Politics • page 26

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Politics Continued • paGe 25

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tional candidate. He doesn’t have a ground game. He doesn’t have an advertising program. He doesn’t have a circle of advisers that he can see and the media can talk to. He is so unusual, so atypical just on those grounds. Then to have him be a free-associating speaker who riffs, it’s hard to tell what’s going to come from his lips.”

Stevenson said that questions of legitimacy surrounding the last three presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — raised by opposing parties have contributed to Washington’s political gridlock.

“I fear that this tone is only worsened in the Trump campaign, and that it will make it hard for the winner to escape this sense of illegitimacy by the opposition.,” he said. “The key issue is that if Clinton wins, which it is looking increasingly like it will happen, will she have a Republican or a Democratic Congress?” pHoto: kaVeH sardari / JoHns Hopkins sCHool oF adVanCed international stUdies Regardless, Billet doubts the country is going back to more ci- the school of advanced international studies at vility in politics Johns Hopkins University is one of the top-rated “Assuming that Donald Trump foreign policy schools in the nation. is some sort of aberration that will go away after this election is a foolish notion,” he said. “Now we have people who are able to say outrageous things, they get away with it and get all this free airtime regardless of whether they’re right or wrong. We are not going to go back to a more civil level of conduct with our politics. This election campaign is simply an extension of what we have been going through the last several years.

It’s not that odd. It’s an extension of the instability we’ve seen in the Congress, and that is a manifestation of further polarization in the American public. It’s just a matter of time before we see who the next Donald Trump will be.” WD James Cullum (@JamesCullum2) is a contributing writer and photographer for The Washington Diplomat.

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hotels & Travel A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

•

October 2016

kimpton renovated the Carlyle Hotel in dupont Circle and partnered with chef michael schlow for its acclaimed restaurant, the riggsby.

pHotos: sCott sUCHman

Recipe for Collaboration Hotels Partner with Big-Name Chefs to Elevate Both Their Brands •

I

by stepHanie kanowitZ

t used to be that hotel restaurants served food that was underwhelming and overpriced. But in recent years, renowned chefs have been attaching themselves to the dining choices at similarly renowned hotels. Now, hotels new and old are cooking up ways to get a known name in the galley.

For instance, local celebrity chef Mike Isabella will open Arroz next year at the Marriott Marquis — the first hotel venture for the prolific restaurateur and author, who has appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef ” television series.

“We’re an amenity for the hotel, we feel,” Isabella said. “They have a bar there, they have a diner in there and they have a sports bar, [but] there’s no real full-service restaurant … that offers the food that we offer.”

That food will be southern Spanish with influences from Morocco and Portugal, albeit heavy on the former, incorporating dishes from Tangier along with other North African cuisine. The menu will feature many egg dishes, paellas and soupy rices (Arroz is Spanish for rice). Cart service will be available with tapas-

like bites that are not on the menu and change daily. Arroz is also one of the 10 concepts planned for Isabella Eatery opening in Virginia’s Tysons Galleria later in 2017.

Isabella, named the 2016 Restaurateur of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), is no stranger to food with international flavor. He also owns Graffiato (inspired by Italian small plates), Kapnos (Greek-based), Pepita (a Mexican cantina), Yona (Japanese noodle bar) and Requin (French Mediterranean). He chose a Spanish concept because it doesn’t duplicate eateries that have already been done or are nearby, he said. see chefS • paGe 28

the riggsby offers american fare with retro flair.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016 | 27

Chefs Continued • page 27

“Spaniards have strong regional identity and it shows in their food culture. You can enjoy paella in Valencia, then drive down the coast a bit and experience completely different flavors and ingredients. Not many U.S. restaurateurs focus on southern Spain, Northern Africa and Portugal. Those regions of the world heavily influence each other’s art, architecture and food, and those unique flavors are exactly what we are aiming to capture at Arroz,” he explained.

Isabella leases the space from Marriott and operates it as his own, but he did get the OK from hotel executives before moving ahead with Arroz.

“It’s a lease like a restaurant. It’s not a management deal where I work for Marriott,” he told us. “I pretty much have full control over everything. Obviously, they needed to approve my concept — if that’s what they wanted in their hotel.”

The Marriott space, which will seat 185 in the dining room and 65 outside, appealed to Isabella because the hotel offers an automatic clientele base.

“It is the biggest hotel in the city and across the street from the Convention Center, so they already are maybe the busiest hotel in the city, and so it’s kind of a win-win situation,” he said. “We’re going to hit a lot of new people, and that’s really what we want to do.”

Marriott Marquis General Manager Dan Nadeau said the brand shares Isabella’s excitement about Arroz.

“In addition to diversifying our culinary offerings for our guests, we hope Arroz will be a dining Photo: Greg Powers destination in Washington, D.C., and a place for our Mike Isabella neighbors to socialize and celebrate,” Nadeau said.

“We’ve been searching for just the right culinary talent to partner with since we opened in May 2014, and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors and locals alike to Arroz in 2017.”

Photo: Chris Molina

Chef Michael Schlow partnered with Kimpton for two of the boutique hotel brand’s restaurants: the Riggsby in the Carlyle and Casolare in the recently opened Glover Park property, seen above. Casolare serves coastal Italian fare such as barely seared tuna with white beans, Fresno chiles and lemon zest, at right.

Well-known chefs such as Schlow — who was named Best Chef in the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation and has appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” as well as the Food Network — attract diners to their restaurants for obvious reasons, and it turns out that a well-known restaurant can be equally enticing to prospective hotel guests. “If there is a good food and beverage operation, it makes the hotel more attractive,” Uhr said.

For instance, a business meeting or room service at the Carlyle means the Riggsby will cater. “It’s a great bragging point so the meeting planners know they’re not just getting run-of-the-mill banquet kitchen food,” Fraher said.

From the restaurant’s perspective, the hotel provides built-in customers. The hotel, on the other hand, improves its image in a city where competition for overnight guests is fierce. The District is home to more than 30,000 hotel rooms, with another 5,075 in the construction pipeline, according to Destination DC, which promotes tourism to the nation’s capital.

Quality in Sea Of course, restaurant of Quantity competition is also fierce here, with more than 2,100 The trend toward hiring a notable restaurants, 81 of which chef to run the hotel kitchen gathhave Zagat food scores of ered momentum locally with James at least 25 out of 30, acBeard Award-winning Michael cording to the organizaMina, whose Bourbon Steak sits tion. The Washington Post in Georgetown’s Four Seasons and named D.C. one of the top was named the 2012 Fine Dining 10 food cities in America in Restaurant of the Year by RAMW. 2015. If that seems like too (Before that, the late Michel Richmuch of a pat on the back, ard’s acclaimed Citronelle in the Zagat gave the District the now-defunct Lathan Hotel was a number-three spot on its high-end dining mainstay.) list of the top 17 food cities “For a long time, the restaurant the same year. or the food service operation inside Photo: Cade Martin Photography / Hay-Adams “Washington, D.C., is a hotel was viewed as an amenity, As the new executive chef of the Lafayette restaurant in the Hay-Adams, Nicolas Legret experiencing a dining rewhereas now I think it’s becoming said he plans to overhaul about 60 percent of the menu every three months, while keeping naissance and the world is viable real estate that can be profit- mainstays that long-time hotel guests expect. taking notice,” said Elliott able,” said Steve Uhr, director of operations for chef Michael Schlow, who has restaurants in two Kimpton Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, noting that there is Hotels properties: the Carlyle and Glover Park Hotel. “Hotels are not $9.6 billion in development underway in the city. “Bon Appétit Maganecessarily great at running restaurants. It’s a different mentality, and zine named D.C. its ‘restaurant city of the year’ and a D.C.-dedicated I think that hoteliers said, ‘You know what, there’s no reason why we Michelin restaurant guide launches Oct. 13, 2016. These accolades not should break even in this space. We should make money, and if we’re only resonate with sophisticated domestic and international travelers, but savvy restaurateurs too who understand the value joining D.C.’s not great at it, let’s hire somebody that is.’”

It turns out that the relationship between a hotel and a restaurant hospitality landscape.”

Hotel managers are also realizing that guests shouldn’t have to go is mutually beneficial. “We kind of scratch each other’s back,” said Thomas Fraher, general manager of the Carlyle, home to the Riggsby, elsewhere to find quality or gourmet cuisine.

“We’d like to keep as many people at property and dining at our which Schlow opened July 2015 with a European-influenced continental menu. Fraher is also temporarily overseeing the Glover Park Hotel, See chefs • page 31 where Schlow’s Casolare opened in July to serve coastal Italian fare.

28 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Photo: Michael Schlow

WD | Travel & Hotels | Luxury

Value of Travel At Virtuoso, Resilient Luxury Market Seeks Out Exclusive Experiences •

by Anna Gawel

T

housands of well-dressed men and women swarmed the chandelierlit rooms of the Bellagio Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, jumping from one table to the next as an enormous clock counted down the seconds in blaring red lights overhead.

They had exactly four minutes to make their pitch to woo the person sitting across from them before moving on to their next prospective partner in this intricately choreographed rendition of speed dating. Only they weren’t looking for love. They were looking for a match of a different kind — trying to connect their highend clients with some of the world’s most exclusive travel experiences.

This was the scene at Virtuoso Travel Week, which attracted over 5,200 travel professionals to the gambling capital of the world in August to share the latest trends in international travel and, specifically, the luxury market.

Virtuoso is a leading travel agency network focused on the luxury market. The membership-based group connects more than 11,400 travel agents (or “advisors,” as they prefer to be called) in 40 countries to over 1,700 “suppliers” in the form of the world’s top hotels and resorts, cruise lines, airlines, tour companies and premier destinations. The goal is to up the wow factor by providing clientele with elite amenities, experiences and insider perks.

Back from the Brink With the advent of online booking and the proliferation of do-it-yourself websites from Expedia to Priceline to Kayak, many assumed that the quaint brick-and-mortar travel agency would go the way of the do-do. On the one hand, the disruptive power of technology did just that to the travel industry — disrupted it. Today, there are about half the number of travel agents working in the U.S. as there were in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, consumers have a bevy of exotic excursions at their fingertips, with websites aggregating millions of travel deals in milliseconds.

But far from being driven to extinction, travel agents say they have adapted to the internet revolution, in part by tailoring their services to travelers who want the kind of upscale, out-of-the-box adventures that one-stop sites and bargain-hunting algorithms can’t deliver.

“Ten years ago for example, I was convinced that there would be no travel agents today because now you

Virtuoso, a leading travel agency network focused on the luxury market, works with travel advisors to provide exclusive, personalized excursions, such as hot-air balloon rides over the desert.

Photo: Virtuoso

can book anything you like,” Philippe Garnier of Hilton Worldwide, which includes the Waldorf Astoria and Conrad Hotels, told The Diplomat.

“But the point is that the travel agent really has to think through and offer experiences. It’s not just about the booking, but about the selection and creating the curated itinerary.”

The sheer size and scope of Virtuoso’s annual confab reinforced the notion that travel agents are alive and well. A record 5,257 travel professionals from 98 countries converged on the Bellagio, Aria and Vdara hotels for this year’s event. That’s a 9 percent jump from last year’s numbers — and a far cry from the mere 98 people who attended the conference when it started 28 years ago.

“Thirty years ago I brought together Allied Travel and Percival Tours to create a vibrant, resilient global travel network focused not solely on transactions, but on catalyzing rich human experiences,” said Virtuoso Chairman and CEO Matthew D. Upchurch. “And we have four guiding principles we believe will anchor our future: ensure success for our agency members, make it personal for both

our partners and their clients, pioneer and innovate, and tell the advisor story again and again.”

That story was indeed on automatic repeat during the Aug. 7-10 extravaganza. A staggering 320,000 one-to-one meetings took place totaling more than 1.5 million minutes, or the equivalent of 2.9 years. That’s a whole lot of storytelling — and sales.

Virtuoso estimated that meetings at last year’s conference generated some $450 million in sales alone.

With a total portfolio of $15.5 billion in annual travel sales, Upchurch has built a sprawling network anchored by an individualized approach to travel, bringing together agents and suppliers to design itineraries that cater to personality over price; prestige over cookie-cutter prosaic; and the transformational over the transactional.

Trends in International Travel Those experiences span the spectrum of luxury travel — from firstclass expedition voyages through the remote villages and unspoiled wil-

derness of the Alaskan landscape; to growing a piece of your own coral in the underwater reefs of the Maldives; to eco-friendly African safaris that teach travelers to turn off the GPS settings on their phones, lest they alert poachers to the location of endangered animals.

“We’re a cruise line but not a cruise line because we focus on the land,” said Larry Pimentel of Azamara Club Cruises, describing the company’s philosophy of longer, overnight stays to create a “destination immersion.”

“We’re really not about sightseeing,” he said of Azamara, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. “For example, our guests are treated to tenors singing in Tuscany or a ballet performance in St. Petersburg. So it’s a much richer, deeper experience.”

While the options for travelers with deep pockets ran the gamut, certain distinct trends in international travel have emerged in recent years, according to Virtuoso.

The group, which sourced data from its warehouse of more than $35 billion in transactions, said the top See luxury • page 30 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 29

Luxury Continued • page 29

destinations for the upcoming fall and holiday timeframe are: Italy, France, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain, Mexico, China, Australia, New Zealand and Israel (ranked by popularity based on future bookings).

“Luxury travelers are remaining true to European favorites, while turning their attention to warmer climes as the weather shifts at home. They also are seeking out more exotic locales worldwide, including a boom for African countries,” Virtuoso says.

Meanwhile, the countries that have seen the largest percentage of growth in year-over-year bookings include: Kenya, Iceland, St. Martin, China, Ecuador, Japan, South Africa, Tanzania, Croatia and Jamaica.

“Africa continues to surge in popularity, a continuation of the trend Virtuoso noted for summer travel. With sales up 28 percent year over year, Africa is the only continent to post such an increase.

Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, all strong safari destinations, will benefit from a projected 17 percent increase,” the group noted. “According to Virtuoso’s travel advisors, safaris are particularly appealing for multigenerational family trips with plenty to see and enjoy for travelers of all ages.”

Jack S. Ezon, president of New Yorkbased Ovation Vacations, observed that multigenerational family trips are part of a larger trend toward accumulating memories over memorabilia.

“Rather than accumulate more stuff, people are investing in lifetime memories and shared, enriching experiences,” he wrote in a report on 2016 travel trends.

“For example, instead of buying a new home or sexy car for a 40th birthday, [high-end travelers] are going away with their friends on a four-day weekend for a memory, or ‘story,’ they will never forget.”

Ezon added that despite a glut of technology, travelers are unplugging and seeking out artisan, bespoke getaways, working with local vintners to create their own wine label, for example, or foraging for vegetables to prepare their own dinner alongside a Michelin-star chef.

On that note, Ezon said food, art and wellness are among the key drivers influencing travel decisions this year.

Similarly, other advisors cited the boom in wellness-oriented excursions.

To tap this rapidly growing niche market — which is predicted to reach $680 billion by next year and comprise 15 percent of global tourism — Virtuoso introduced a wellness component to this year’s convention. Exhibits included customized blending of aromatherapy body creams, a traditional Mexican ritual energy cleansing, paddle-boarding yoga instruction, Thai massage incorporating silk strands and a Turkish bath demonstration with a customary soap-foam washing.

Philippe Roux-Dessarps of Hyatt Hotels Corp., which includes Park Hyatt, told The Diplomat that he’s excited about a new program his company is rolling out centered around mindfulness.

“We’re going to have a whole mindfulness room and guests are going to be able to join us either individually or in group classes,” he explained. “We always try to do things that are authentic and are not gimmicky, but that really are meaningful. We’re all busy and we’re all always on these phones, emails and so forth, and this whole concept of mind30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Photo: Virtuoso / Advisor Peg Aikman

In response to the rise of the internet, travel agents have tailored their services to upscale clientele seeking unique experiences, whether trekking through the Alaskan wilderness, exploring glaciers or riding through the expansive U.S. Southwest landscape.

Photos: Virtuoso

fulness gels very well with our idea of well-being.”

Roux-Dessarps also noted that Park Hyatt is opening three new hotels in Majorca, Spain; St. Kitts and Nevis; and Bangkok in the beginning of next year.

“Right now we are 38 hotels and we have 18 that are opening in the next two years, so we are about to explode.”

Similarly, other hoteliers said that as Western travelers become more adventurous — and, conversely, travel becomes more mainstream in developing countries — they’re rapidly expanding into new frontiers.

Hilton’s Garnier said that the Conrad brand is opening up its first property in India, along with one in San Luis Potosí in Mexico. “It’s got a great colonial city center and historical past, but it’s not necessarily thought of as a leisure destination,” he said.

Leslie Dodson of AccorHotels said Mexico continues to be a popular attraction, as do some unconventional spots in Eastern Europe. “We’re going into Warsaw early next year. We’re seeing it as an emerging destination,” Dodson said.

For Allison Sitch, vice president of global public relations with RitzCarlton, Asia and its growing base of middle-class consumers are a big draw.

“Take China, for example. We went into the gateway and then second-tier cities, and now we’re into the tertiary-tier cities of China that have populations of 15 million people — building our brand — [because] now those people are starting to travel outwardly,” she said.

Bumps in the Road Yet other travel trends have been grabbing distinctly unwanted headlines — and stressing out hoteliers and agents alike.

The turnout at Virtuoso notwithstanding, the travel industry as a whole has taken a major hit in recent years. A spate of terrorist attacks in high-profile destinations once deemed safe havens, such as Paris, Brussels and Nice, has scared tourists away in droves. Other popular getaways in Europe, from Greece to Italy to Croatia, are reeling under the tsunami of refugees flooding the continent — or at least the perception of it. The lingering effects of the 2008 global economic meltdown have also taken a toll on travel budgets.

But not all travelers have been tightening their belts or avoiding airport security lines. Officials at Virtuoso insisted that luxury travelers are a reliable segment of the market, one that’s largely immune to economic and security volatility.

“I think that on average, luxury travel tends to be far more resilient than let’s say the other segments,” said Garnier.

“Now, of course, there are some destinations that have been particularly hit, such as Turkey and France, my own country.

But I think the luxury traveler is very well aware that there is value in connections, there is value in travel. That’s not to say that I think they’re going to go into warzones, but I don’t think they react so much to the immediate headlines.”

Anne-Laure Tuncer of Atout France, the country’s tourism development

agency, agrees that while Paris and Nice have suffered in the wake of several terrorist attacks, other French destinations have emerged unscathed.

“Last year, we had a terrific year,” she told us. “We welcomed 3.3 million Americans. In the first quarter of this year, the trend was looking promising…. All the events that we had — Euro 2016, the Formula One Grand Prix, Tour de France — everything went with no incident at all, and then we had Nice. So the Nice attack will be hard for [the residents] of Nice. Cities like Lyons, Bordeaux and Marseilles, however, are doing well.”

Sitch of Ritz-Carlton speculated that some of the resiliency in the market may be because luxury travelers tend to be less reactionary than the casual tourist.

“At the end of the day, honestly, with 92 hotels around the world, we’re very lucky that in the affluent community, people continue to see the value of travel. Ultimately I believe travel makes the world a better place. When people get to experience different cultures, it builds better understanding, so the people who tend to travel in the luxury category are well-educated, informed or well-read on the subject,” she said. “Where they’re traveling to might change one season to the next, depending on what’s going on, but everything is cyclical, and just keeping people moving is the important thing.” WD Anna Gawel is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

“

We’d like to keep as many people at property and dining at our restaurant as we can…. There are so many options around. We have to make sure we wow them from the beginning.

”

Peter Laufer, executive chef of the Willard InterContinental Washington

Chefs Continued • page 28

restaurant as we can,” said Peter Laufer, who took over as executive chef at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel on July 1. “There are so many options around. We have to make sure we wow them from the beginning.”

Nicolas Legret, who took over as executive chef for the Lafayette, Off The Record, Top of the Hay and in-room dining and banquet facilities at the Hay-Adams hotel in May, agrees.

“Hotels now put much more thought in their restaurant,” Legret said.

“It used to be a hotel and then people are going outside [to eat], but I guess over the years people realize, ‘We have customers in there. Why lose them?’”

Challenges of Being a Hotel Chef For Legret, the differences between being the chef of a freestanding restaurant and running the kitchen at a hotel are marked.

“When you’ve got your own place, you can just offer one thing that you want. Here, you’ve got to be flexible and open-minded,” Legret said.

Although he has plans for changes to the menus, Legret said he can’t start over from scratch. “We have regulars who are here every other day,” he said. “You cannot just cross out everything. We have the Cobb salad, we have the chicken salad that must stay because we tried to remove them and it was like a revolution. Those people have been here for years and years, or maybe a decade.”

Instead, he plans to overhaul about 60 percent of the menu every three months, relying heavily on local producers and seasonal favorites.

Catering to a wide audience can be a challenge, the Willard’s Laufer added.

“From a culinary side, not only have you got travelers and dignitaries and executives of the industry coming, but you also have people who are coming to see the sights and sounds of Washington, D.C., so you have a great blend of audience you have to cater to,” he said. “You have the travelers who like to experience comfort food with a local flair, and you have the local patrons who like to experience themed Peter Laufer, executive chef cuisine as we have with our French bistro [Café at the Willard InterContinental Washington. du Parc]…. You can be sitting in the bistro and you have dignitaries from all over the world and then you have a small family on a family vacation sitting right beside them.”

Besides the patrons, Laufer also has to please the hotel managers. “I make my proposal on the menu and I make my presentation to the food and beverage director and the GM to get them involved because they need to be supportive as well,” he said. “It’s not just my ideas, it’s our ideas. We need to make sure we cross-promote.”

He holds tastings and educational seminars with hotel staff so that they are up to date on what’s available to guests. “It’s a team effort,” Laufer added.

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DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Law and Order A corporate lawyer for 20 years who’s continuing her education at Georgetown this fall, Thais Gonzalez Carballada, wife of Costa Rican Ambassador Roman Macaya Hayes, has a penchant for mediating problems — whether it’s in the courtroom or at home with her four children. / PAGE 35

PHOTOGRAPHY

Face of Change The face of any country is perpetually evolving, so it’s only fitting that the latest exhibit at the Art Museum of the Americas is a work in progress, documenting social and cultural connections among the Chilean people. / PAGE 36

PHOTOGRAPHY

Rich ‘Intersections’ “Intersections” brings together photographs and videos from the National Gallery of Art with pieces from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in a merger of opportunity that has enriched and enlarged the newly joined collection. / PAGE 37

PHOTO: COURTESY EMORY DOUGLAS, ARTIST RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY / © EMORY DOUGLAS, ART RESOURCE, NY

Emory Douglas’s “Justice Scales”

TIPPING THE SCALES ART

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Haiti Ambassador Insider Series / Sister Cities International / PAGE 42

The bold and provocative style of Emory Douglas, the former minister of culture for the Black Panthers, created a visceral record of racism in the 1960s and ’70s. The same struggle against a litany of racially tinged social injustices continues today with the Black Lives Matter movement. A timely exhibition at American University’s Katzen Arts Center explores the ties that bind Douglas to black artists who followed him in “It Takes a Nation.” / PAGE 34

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OCTOBER 2016 | 33

WD | Culture | Art

Long Shadow of Injustice Katzen Explores Art as Social Protest from Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter •

BY BRENDAN L. SMITH

It Takes a Nation: Art for Social Justice with Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party, AFRICOBRA, and Contemporary Washington Artists THROUGH OCT. 23 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM KATZEN ARTS CENTER 4400 MASSACHUSETTS AVE., NW

(202) 885-1300 | WWW.AMERICAN.EDU/CAS/MUSEUM

T

he bold and provocative graphic style of Emory Douglas, the former minister of culture for the Black Panthers, created a visceral record of the racist atrocities of the 1960s and ’70s in a visual language that anyone could understand. A young black boy holding aloft the scales of justice, police depicted as pigs walking on their hind feet and defiant black protesters armed with rifles are among Douglas’s provocative images.

The same struggle against police brutality and a litany of racially tinged social injustices continues today, with the Black Lives MatPHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK, AND GOODMAN GALLERY, SOUTH AFRICA ter movement protesting the police killings of unarmed black men across the country.

“It Takes a Nation” reflects on racism in America through pieces such as, from top, Hank Willis Thomas’s “Raise Up,” Wadsworth Jarrell’s “Revolutionary” and Emory A timely exhibition at American University’s Douglas’s “Revolution of Our Lifetime.”

Katzen Arts Center explores the ties that bind Douglas to black artists who followed him in “It Takes a Nation: Art for Social Justice with “Revolutionary Suit,” Jae Jarrell — a fashion designer, artist and Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party, Wadsworth’s wife — created a sensible wool blouse and skirt AFRICOBRA, and Contemporary Washingthat would fit in at most offices, except for the gold bandolier ton Artists,” on view until Oct. 23. filled with rainbow-hued bullets that resemble sticks of paint Most people remember the Black Panther or lipstick, illustrating how the power of art rebelled against the Party for Self-Defense as diametrically opconservative roles assigned to women in the 1960s. posed to the non-violent protests organized The weakest element of the exhibition is the work by 15 conby Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a militant temporary artists. Many of the pieces display a more nuanced movement of armed black men and women and intellectual approach that is bound by the conventional who were infiltrated by the FBI because they parameters of the art world, but they lack soul and don’t strike terrified white society. But the Black Panthers the conscience as social protest or challenge viewers about their formed in response to the blatant racism and own biases. That may be a mirror of the times, where the Black PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST police brutality of the times. Only a small Lives Matter movement has lacked central leadership or clearly number of their followers carried guns and did so in comarticulated goals other than an end to police brutality. How will that be pliance with local laws. Formed in 1966 in Oakland, Caaccomplished? No one is providing the answer or even a path in the right lif., the organization also included women in prominent direction. roles, a free breakfast program that fed more than 10,000 There are a few exceptions. A 2014 bronze sculpture called “Raise poor children and a 10-point plan calling for the “power Up” by New York artist Hank Willis Thomas shows the upper torsos to determine the destiny of our black community.” of men with their hands raised, echoing the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” Douglas, who is still creating art, oversaw production mantra from the riots and protests following the police shooting of unof the Black Panther newspaper that reached more than armed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The figures appear 400,000 people at its peak. In a previous interview, Dougto be sinking, or rising, from a white ledge, their backs turned to the las said his stark cover illustrations were designed to reach viewer, anonymous figures defined by their forced submission rather an audience that included many illiterate people. He often than their humanity. used black ink and only one other color because of the In an installation called “Power in the Blood” by D.C. artist Holly newspaper’s shoestring budget.

Bass, visitors are invited inside the skeletal wooden frame of a house At the Katzen Arts Center, Douglas’s illustrations ofto watch videos projected onto sheets. In one video, Bass interviews fer a searing indictment of the social conditions facing her father in a cotton field about his younger days picking cotton in black America that unfortunately still exist today. He ofrural Georgia. But he speaks in a matter-of-fact tone without traces PHOTO: COURTESY EMORY DOUGLAS, ARTIST RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY / ten depicted children to echo his concerns about the fate of bitterness about the backbreaking labor, including one day when © EMORY DOUGLAS, ART RESOURCE, NY of future generations. In one illustration, a black boy holds he picked 214 pounds of cotton working from sunrise to sunset. In the a placard stating, “U.S GOV’T – STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE NOW!!!” other video, Bass dances on the porch of a dilapidated house, which might Another cover illustration shows a crying black soldier, his helmet filled with im- represent a slave cabin or sharecropper’s home, in a white dress. She dons ages of riot police, beneath a sign stating “OUR FIGHT is not in VIETNAM.” In muddy boots, reminiscent of the work in the fields, with audio of her singing another image, grim-faced black men and women holding machine guns stand the traditional folk song “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” which is considered racist beneath the slogan “REVOLUTION IN OUR LIFETIME.” by many people today even though it was popularized by black blues great The exhibition also includes work by AfriCOBRA, the African Commune of Lead Belly. The daily toils that are considered commonplace by one generaBad Relevant Artists founded by black artists in Chicago in the 1960s. In “Revo- tion shock the sensibilities of the next. If nothing else, that is a sign of slow lutionary,” Wadsworth Jarrell’s psychedelic style of contrasting colors and curv- progress. WD ing bubble text portrays the fiery civil rights leader Angela Davis. Another painting called “Liberation Soldiers” depicts leaders of the Black Panther Party in the Brendan L. Smith (www.brendanlsmith.com) a freelance writer same style, lionizing black men who were despised by many whites at the time. In and mixed-media artist in Washington, D.C.

34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OCTOBER 2016

WD | Culture | Diplomatic Spouses

Laying Down the Law Costa Rican Envoy’s Wife Uses Legal Background to Navigate Life •

BY GAIL SCOTT

“F

rom the time I was 8 years old, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” said Thais Gonzalez Carballada, the wife of Costa Rican Ambassador Roman Macaya Hayes. Even though neither of her parents were lawyers, nor any of her siblings, Gonzalez says, “I just knew.”

“We were six children when I was growing up.

I was the fourth in the family and the oldest was a boy. Maybe that’s why I wanted to become a lawyer — to defend myself,” she laughed. “There still isn’t another lawyer. There are two economists, one architect and two flight attendants.”

Today, Gonzalez said her legal background — which includes nearly 20 years as a corporate lawyer — helps her navigate the minefield of her current home life, raising four children. “We do mediation with the kids,” she told us. “You find out, analyze. You don’t have to fight. And it helps you keep your mind open. I think sharing different ways of thinking is interesting. I love deep discussions about life.”

She added: “Everyone always asks me why I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. My reason … is that it is good to help people resolve problems. With laws, you do things a certain way, rules by the people.”

Gonzalez, who earned her bachelor’s of law degree from Complutense University in Madrid, will continue to learn about those rules this fall at Georgetown University Law Center, where she is back in the classroom to earn her master’s of law.

In addition to readjusting to life as a student again, Costa Rican Ambassador Roman Macaya Hayes, a biochemist by training, and his wife Gonzalez said she is toying with the idea of exploring other avenues of Thais Gonzalez Carballada, a corporate lawyer, have four children: Roman, Valeria, law besides corporate law. “Corporate law is like a transaction. You’re rep- Adriana and Daniela. resenting a corporation, not dealing with someone’s life,” she said.

Eventually, though, they stopped playing games and got married in a In contrast to Gonzalez’s lifelong focus on the law, her husband’s career has been eclectic. Macaya has variously worked as a scientist, busi- civil ceremony in Costa Rica. “All the people we love participated. One nessman, advocate, politician and academic. A chemist and biochemist year afterward, we had a church wedding in Madrid for my family and by training, Macaya served as senior scientist at PharmaGenics, a U.S. friends at home. But everyone else came — all the people who were at the biotechnology company that was acquired by Genzyme. He received a first wedding.”

Likewise, their honeymoon was a group affair. “We had planned to go bachelor’s in chemistry from Middlebury College in Vermont, an MBA in health care management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton to Palma, Majorca, but more than a dozen of our friends wanted to come with us! We had an old house with 14 rooms, School and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from olive trees and we had a great time.”

UCLA. Today, their home is similarly full. DanMacaya spent years highlighting the iela, 13, Roman, 11, and Adriana, 10, all atstrengths and weaknesses of the Costa tended the American International School Rican health care system, criticizing the in Costa Rica, so they arrived in D.C. with economic and social consequences of a good grasp of English. Valeria, 6, has had ever-expanding intellectual property proa more difficult time adjusting, according to visions on health care, agriculture and her mother. “She was only 4 when we arrived development, while engaging in numertwo years ago and didn’t know English. But ous debates on how to strike a balance most of all, she missed our old nanny and between incentives for innovation and the THAIS GONZALEZ CARBALLADA Rufo, our bulldog. They don’t allow bulldogs common good. on flights because of their flattened faces In 2009, Macaya ran for president of wife of Costa Rican Ambassador Roman Macaya Hayes and trouble breathing.”

Costa Rica as an outsider against two esGonzalez said that being an ambassador’s tablishment party candidates, with his wife, mother of four and now a graduate stuwife serving as his strategic advisor and team coordinator. He didn’t win the nomination and for now, both of them remain coy about their long- dent is a difficult balancing act, but she enjoys the challenge. “I do everyterm political plans. “For the 2018 elections, he is not going to run and thing I can while the kids are at school or asleep. I divide my time as best I can. My husband and I also split up our time in supporting our kids with for 2022, who knows.”

Gonzalez, a native of Spain, met her Costa Rican husband in Pennsyl- homework. We also rely on the parents of our children’s friends,” she said, noting that they also have a nanny who lends “tremendous support.” vania.

Gonzalez, who said she likes to relax by cooking, said they make it a “We met in Philadelphia during the time I was doing an internship in a law firm there and he was studying for his MBA at Wharton. We met at a point to do activities together as a family. “We went skiing with the kids to Latin American party where half the people were Americans. His English, White Tail [in Maryland] last winter. I skied when I was single in Spain. with an American accent, was so good I thought he was an American, so Roman is good at sports. He got his introduction to skiing at Middlebury I spoke to him in English. And he spoke back to me in perfect Spanish. I College and even taught skiing for three months.”

They are also relishing their time in Washington, D.C. “I love the exremember thinking he was very handsome, very smart and very down to perience of living in an elegant, historic, international city. The family earth. At the time, I think he was 29 and I was 25,” she recalled.

“We kept seeing each other at different parties and he would ask me can enjoy the four seasons. In Costa Rica, we only have summer and the out. I would say, ‘Who’s coming?’ — expecting to go as a group. I played SEE DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES • PAGE 39 hard to get and he played hard back.”

“

Everyone always asks me why I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. My reason … is that it is good to help people resolve problems.

”

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OCTOBER 2016 | 35

WD | Culture | Photography

Faces of Chile ‘Muchedumbre’: Work-in-Progress Portrait of Collective Identity •

BY KATE OCZYPOK

“Muchedumbre – Photography

by Jorge Brantmayer (Chile) THROUGH OCT. 9 ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS) ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS 201 18TH ST., NW

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

T

he face of any country is perpetually changing, so it’s only fitting that the latest exhibit at the Art Museum of the Americas is a work in progress, documenting social and cultural connections among the Chilean people.

Curator Camilo Yáñez worked with photographer Jorge Brantmayer to create an evolving, eye-catching visual album of the people who inhabit this geologically diverse South American nation of 17 million.

Brantmayer’s “Muchedumbre,” which means crowd, recorded the portraits at different moments of contemporary Chilean history to examine the country’s collective identity. While all of the photos were captured using a similar method, with the same lighting and frame, they feature a stunning array of individuals — everyone from scholars, slum dwellers and sex workers to environmentalists, beauty queens, poets and maids.

“Muchedumbre starts from my own need to look at people, to come close and look directly at others who are finally standing up after years of fear,” Brantmayer said. “These faces interest me as maps of personal history and coexistence in the last years in Santiago.”

Yáñez said the human face itself is a powerful form of communication and that Brantmayer’s photographs possess that power in spades.

“The idea of the project is that all are photographed in [equal] conditions, of a similar shape, looking from front, with a look [that is] transparent and direct,” Yáñez said.

The result is a raw catalogue of diversity and emotion, often expressed as torment, anger and sadness. A parade of grim countenances stares back at viewers, unnerving yet intriguing them. Brantmayer said people often ask about his portraits and are curious to learn more about the subjects and what they do for a living. Despite their differences and mystique, the portraits all explore mankind’s intrinsic search for identity.

“A special psychological state of communication is created, which I find very important considering the diversity of complexions [and] looks that question you at the same time,” Brantmayer said. “This contributes to a sense of equality; we are all standing on Earth under the same conditions.”

The eyes and skin in Brantmayer’s elegantly simple black-and-white portraits seem to pulsate with meaning. While they scream of individuality, they also hint at the common human connection that binds people of different nationalities, faiths, races and ethnicities.

“I think it is of great help to see with justice and engagement what the other is all about,” Brantmayer said, noting that he hopes his work contributes to a conversation on pervasive racism and inequalities.

While Chile is changing, it remains a country of vast differences — and

36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OCTOBER 2016

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Photographer Jorge Brantmayer captures portraits at different moments of contemporary Chilean history for his series “Muchedumbre,” which means crowd.

disparities. The long strip of territory bordering the Pacific Ocean and Andes Mountains has transitioned from the right-wing military regime of Augusto Pinochet to become one of South America’s most stable, economically prosperous nations. However, Chile, which was colonized by Spain in the mid-16th century, continues to evolve and grapple with its past. Brantmayer says the Pinochet years left a dark stain on his country, telling the Washington Post’s Express that Pinochet’s “dictatorship castrated our whole generation.”

Today, immigration from other Latin American countries is also transforming Chile’s population.

Brantmayer’s next project, “Skin Geography,” is composed of hundreds of portraits of what he calls the “new Chileans.” “Different people walk the streets, with other colors and traditions,” he said.

“There is a different mood in the air that causes all kinds of different reactions.”

In framing issues of diversity, change and immigration, Brantmayer’s faces have universal resonance, mirroring debates happening in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world.

Brantmayer said he enjoys the ability of portraiture to convey larger messages and meaning. “I am interested in portraits as a geographical territory, which leaves marks and signs of its existence,” he said. “This constitutes a never-ending mystery and source of questions with no answers; there are layers and layers of history that agitate and interest me immensely.” WD Kate Oczypok (@OczyKate) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

WD | Culture | Photography

Pioneering ‘Intersections’ Corcoran Photographs Merge with National Gallery of Art Collection •

BY GARY TISCHLER

Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art” THROUGH JAN. 2 NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ON THE NATIONAL MALL BETWEEN 3RD AND 9TH STREETS AT CONSTITUTION AVENUE, NW

(202) 737-4215 | WWW.NGA.GOV

T

he National Gallery of Art received a windfall when a judge gave it the right to take over the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s expansive, world-renowned collection (George Washington University gained control of its school for the arts). Supporters cheered the decision, saying it would rescue and ultimately renew the Corcoran, which had been beset by financial woes. Critics say the breakup cemented the demise of the city’s oldest private museum.

Either way, one museum’s loss is another’s gain — and, in the case of a new photography exhibition, the viewer gains some perspective as well.

“Intersections” brings together photographs and videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran in a merger of opportunity that has enriched and enlarged the newly joined collection.

The exhibition spans 100 pieces from the two museums by prominent artists from the 1840s to today, anchored by two pioneers from each collection: Englishman Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) and American Alfred Stieglitz (18641946). It is arranged around several themes that trace the exceptional and focused talents of a number of key figures during the emergence of photography as a distinct art form. While the show ostensibly highlights the photographic personalities who engaged both the eye and mind, it also acts as a history course on the evolution of the medium.

The themes — movement, sequence, narrative, studio and identity—arrange themselves organically, pushing photography ever closer to both art and documentary, surrealism and abstraction — qualities that bore the imprint and pulse of painting and sculpture but also remained unique to the photography.

Two seminal figures appear in every section.

Muybridge is famous for his photographic studies of movement and early work in motion-picture projection. His images depict the sequential multiplicity of the human form, and sometimes animals, moving in a straight line and freezing the act of action frame by frame. Meanwhile, Stieglitz championed photography as art, encouraging and inspiring others to embrace the medium. Stieglitz was a giant with a persona and personal history to match his artistic gifts, including being the boon companion of painter Georgia O’Keeffe, herself no slouch in the big personality department. He frequently made her a subject for his lens, haunting examples of which are in this exhibition.

The sections seem highly literate and articulate, but even if you’re not inclined to study the strands of narrative on the wall text, there is no denying that this is a rich, well-organized exhibition. It’s a treasure trove of some of the most familiar — and not-so familiar — names in photography, beginning with Stieglitz and Muybridge, whose running, jumping, moving, rolling, dressing and rearranging figures accompany every section.

There are other highlights as well, such as Alexey Brodovitch’s dazzling suggestion of dance in a black-and-white 1930s shot of the Ballet Russe Mon-

PHOTOS: NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The merger of pieces from the Corcoran Gallery of Art with the National Gallery of Art’s collection is on display in “Intersections,” which features photography by pioneers such as, from top, Alfred Stieglitz, William Henry Fox Talbot and Eadweard Muybridge, among others.

te Carlo; or Sasha Stone’s flippant capture of an acrobat in high form; or William Henry Fox Talbot’s energetic portrayal of a Paris boulevard. Not every image is a heart-stopper, but exceptionalism abounds, especially in the clean, sharp shots that dig into abstraction and come out beautiful.

When it comes to narrative, 20th-century photographers — faced with an abundance of markets, including new magazines that emerged in the 1920s — tended to go to the haunting, dark and personal. This is the age of Robert Frank, a documentarian with an edge that could wound, and of Nan Goldin, the chronicler of life, including hers and those of her companions, whose images are bound by dysfunction, attitude and naked honesty.

Through portraiture, many photographers captured the lives of communities. James Van Der Zee’s pictures are the physical reminders of the Harlem Renaissance as much as Langston Hughes’s poems are. Meanwhile, Irving Penn uses the gaze of natural light to frame the people of Peru during his trip there. And then there is August Sander, a German photographer who had the ambition to capture an entire country during the days of the Weimar Republic. His portraits of ordinary working people (330 exist) were meant to make Germany universal. The Nazis stopped the project because the people — bricklayers and the like — did not resemble the Aryan ideal.

In the section on identity, there is a striking photograph of young female triplets. Who else but Diane Arbus could make such a shot seem at once glorious and weird? She had a gift for making the familiar seem strange, and the strange seem familiar. “Identity is what’s left after you take away everything else,” Arbus once said.

In this exhibition, photography functions precisely this way, stripping away our expectations, adding to them, focusing them and transforming them through the redefining prism of a camera. WD Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OCTOBER 2016 | 37

WD | Culture | Film

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

English Anthropoid Directed by Sean Ellis (Czech Republic/U.K./France, 2016, 120 min.)

This World War II thriller is based on the extraordinary true story of “Operation Anthropoid,” the code name for the Czechoslovakian operatives’ mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Cameraperson 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 Cinema Opens Fri., Oct. 14

Command and Control Directed by Robert Kenner (U.S., 2016, 92 min.)

This high-stakes documentary thriller reveals the deadly “human error” that led to a little-known accident at the Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980.

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 Cinema

Front Cover

The Dressmaker

Girl Asleep

Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (Australia, 2016, 119 min.)

A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Rosemary Myers (Australia, 2016, 77 min.)

In this vibrant and funny Australian take on adolescent angst, Greta Driscoll’s bubble of obscure loserdom is burst when her parents throw her a surprise 15th birthday party and invite the whole school! Perfectly content being a wallflower, suddenly Greta is flung far from her comfort zone into a distant, parallel place.

Landmark’s Cinema Opens Fri., Oct. 7

The Eyes of My Mother Directed by Nicolas Pesce (U.S., 2016, 77 min.)

In their secluded farmhouse, a former surgeon teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death.

One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl. Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a distinctly dark form (English and Portuguese).

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Oct. 8, 5:45 p.m.

Florence Foster Jenkins Directed by Stephen Frears (U.K., 2016, 110 min.)

Meryl Streep stars as Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who dreams of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema

Directed by Ray Yeung (U.S., 2016, 87 min.)

When a gay fashion stylist works with a renowned foreign actor, they both embark on a journey of self-discovery (English, Mandarin and Cantonese).

Angelika Pop-Up

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 Hec go on the run in the bush and a national manhunt ensues.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

London Road Directed by Rufus Norris (U.K., 2015, 91 min.)

London Road documents the events of 2006, when the quiet rural town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. When a local resident was charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the epicenter of this tragedy.

Angelika Pop-Up

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

The charmingly flawed widow Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) seeks a husband for her daughter and a match for herself, to shore up her status and gain financial stability before she exhausts the hospitality of an ever-shortening list of friends.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 9, 4 p.m.

The Lovers and the Despot

Photo: Magnolia Pictures

A still from “The Lovers and the Despot” shows kidnapped director Shin Sang-ok, left, and his former wife, actress Choi Eun-hee with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Directed by Ross Adam and Robert Cannan (U.K., 2016, 98 min.)

Famed director/producer Shin Sangok and beautiful actress Choi Eun-hee fell in love and were married in 1950s post-war Korea, but, after many successes together, they divorced in the

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

1970s. Then Choi disappeared without a trace. She had been kidnapped

by North Korean agents and taken to meet Kim Jong-il. While searching for Choi, Shin also was kidnapped, and following five years of imprisonment, the couple was reunited by the movie-obsessed Kim, who declared them his personal filmmakers and offered them unlimited funds (English, Korean and Japanese).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Mr. Pig Directed by Diego Luna (Mexico, 2016, 100 min.)

Down-and-out pig farmer Ambrose (Danny Glover) embarks on a road trip from California to Jalisco, Mexico, to sell his last prized hog. But when the trip falls apart and Ambrose’s health starts to decline, his estranged daughter Eunice (Maya Rudolph) comes to his rescue, and they set off to find the pig a proper home.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Oct. 1, 4:30 p.m., Sun., Oct. 2, 7:15 p.m.

Peelers Directed by Sevé Schelenz (Canada, 2016, 95 min.)

Former baseball player Blue Jean Douglas is closing down her smalltown strip club and leaving for good.

But on the club’s closing night, what starts out as a fun-filled last hurrah quickly turns into a bloodbath when a crew of coal miners arrive, bringing a deadly and contagious contaminant to the party.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Oct. 6, 7:15 p.m.

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 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

The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé: A Trip Across Latin America Directed by Paul Dugdale (U.K., 2016, 105 min.)

On their first tour through Latin America in a decade, the Rolling Stones take a rollicking trip through Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, culminating with their greatest challenge yet: preparing for a historic free concert in Havana, Cuba.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Oct. 1, 9 p.m., Wed., Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Sense and Sensibility Directed by Ang Lee (U.K./U.S., 1995, 136 min.)

Emma Thompson won a Best Adapted

Screenplay Oscar for this fine and faithful 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel, in which she and Kate Winslet star as the Dashwood sisters, financially strapped but rich in spirit.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 9, 1:15 p.m.

Snowden Directed by Oliver Stone (U.S./Germany/France, 2016, 134 min.)

NSA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

Angelika Mosaic Atlantic Plumbing Cinema

French The Battle of Algiers Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy/Algeria, 1967, 123 min.)

Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, this legendary film vividly recreates the tumultuous three-year uprising against the occupying French military forces in the late 1950s, with a prescience as powerful today as ever. As violence escalates, the French employ extreme interrogation of prisoners and the Algerians resort to guerrilla terrorism in their quest for independence, with non-combatants caught between.

Landmark’s Cinema Opens Fri., Oct. 7

Beyond the Walls (Au Dela des Murs) Directed by Hervé Hadmar (France, 2016, 150 min.)

When a young speech therapist unexpectedly inherits her neighbor’s house, she begins to discover shifting hallways and rooms that fill her with terror. As she attempts to explore, she learns that her ever-changing house is also manipulating other occupants, interweaving space-time continuums.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 9, 5 p.m.

Long Way North Directed by Rémi Chayé (France/Denmark, 2016, In 1882, a young Russian aristocrat goes on an epic adventure to find out what happened to her grandfather and save her family’s reputation (French and English).

Angelika Pop-Up Opens Fri., Oct. 14

Neither Heaven nor Earth (Ni le Ciel ni la Terre) Directed by Clément Cogitore (France/Belgium, 2015, 100 min.)

As the withdrawal of French troops approaches, Captain Antares Bonassieu and his squad have been assigned a surveillance mission in a remote valley of Wakhan, on the border of Pakistan. Despite the

troops’ determination, control of the secluded valley slowly falls out of their hands. One dark night, soldiers begin to mysteriously disappear (French and Farsi).

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Oct. 7, 7:15 p.m.

Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le Pianiste) Directed by François Truffaut (France, 1960, 92 min.)

Adapting a novel by David Goodis, François Truffaut adds a parodiccomedic sensibility to the story of a heartbroken man, a concert pianist slumming as a barroom musician, who finds a new love and renewed purpose when he takes on gangsters who have threatened his brothers.

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., Wed., Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew A Tale of Love and Darkness Directed by Natalie Portman (Israel, 2016, 95 min.)

Natalie Portman stars in and directs this drama based on the memoir of Amos Oz, a writer, journalist and advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Unhappy in her marriage and intellectually stifled, she would make up stories of adventures (like treks across the desert) to cheer herself up and entertain her 10-year-old son.

He became so enraptured when she read him poetry and explained about words and language, that it would become an influence on his writing for the rest of his life.

West End Cinema

Italian Fishing Bodies (Pescatori di Corpi) Directed by Michele Pennetta (Switzerland, 2016, 65 min.)

In a Sicilian port town, the crew of a clandestine fishing vessel crosses paths with Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who now lives illegally on the boat.

Exploring indifference in the face of immigration, this film delicately uncovers the realities of lives lived in the shadows, simply and poignantly capturing the quotidian tragedies of those suspended between a past of poverty and oppression, and a future that is desperately uncertain (Italian and Arabic).

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Oct. 24, 7:15 p.m.

Japanese A Ball at the Anjo House Directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura (Japan, 1947, 89 min.)

Setsuko Hara’s extraordinary performance is at the heart of this drama about a wealthy family devastated

WD | Culture | Film

by Japan’s defeat in World War II. They hold one final glamorous ball before they have to give up their mansion and, with it, their way of life.

American History Museum Sat., Oct. 22, 2 p.m.

Creepy Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan, 2016, 130 min.)

After a traumatic incident, a criminal psychologist and former police detective moves to a new neighborhood with his wife. Upon meeting their new neighbors, he is approached by the daughter, whose shocking whispered confession shatters the serenity of his new life: “That man in my house is not my father ... He’s a total stranger.”

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Oct. 8, 2 p.m.

Daughters, Wives and a Mother Directed by Mikio Naruse (Japan, 1960, 123 min.)

With great performances by an A-list cast, this film stars Setsuko Hara as Sanae, a recent widow who has returned to the family home with a sizeable sum of insurance money.

Her arrival triggers discord in a family already coming apart at the seams.

National Portrait Gallery Sun., Oct. 23, 2 p.m.

The End of Summer Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1061, 103 min.)

Setsuko Hara is as radiant as ever in her final collaboration with director Yasujiro Ozu. She plays the daughter of a sake company owner, who is trying to find suitable husbands for his two daughters. Meanwhile, the family business is in danger of going under, and the father restarts an affair with a former mistress, much to his children’s horror.

National Portrait Gallery Sun., Oct. 16, 4:30 p.m.

Late Autumn Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1960, 128 min.)

In the earlier film, Setsuko Hara played a daughter under pressure from her widowed father to get married. In “Late Autumn,” she plays the parent trying to marry off her daughter so she can wed one of her own suitors.

American History Museum Sun., Oct. 9, 2 p.m.

swEDish A Man Called Ove (En man som heter)

Repast Directed by Mikio Naruse (Japan, 1951, 97 min.)

In this film by Mikio Naruse, Japan’s foremost cinematic portraitist of women buffeted by fate, Setsuko Hara gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as an Osaka housewife.

Feeling trapped in her marriage to a stockbroker, she is galvanized by a surprise visit from her husband’s niece, who is on the run from her parents.

National Portrait Gallery Sun., Oct. 16, 2 p.m.

Sadako vs. Kayako Directed by Kôji Shiraishi (Japan, 2016, 98 min.)

Director Kôji Shiraishi finally pits two of cinema’s most iconic demons against one another in a spectacular mash-up of the beloved “Ringu” and “Ju-On” franchises.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Oct. 6, 9:30 p.m.

pOrtUgUEsE Kill Me Please (Mate-Me Por Favor) Directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira (Brazil/Argentina, 2015, 101 min.)

After a series of murders plagues a newly developed Rio de Janeiro suburb, 15-year-old Bia and her clique become increasingly obsessed with the gruesome killings. Bia’s first brushes with death only serve to awaken her burgeoning desires, as the world around her begins to decay.

AFI Silver Theatre Wed., Oct. 5, 9:30 p.m.

spanish The Exterminating Angel (El Ángel Exterminador)

Directed by Keiichi Hara (Japan, 2016, 93 min.)

Set in 1814, Miss Hokusai focuses on O-Ei, the daughter of famed artist Tetsuzo, as she tries to navigate the various aspects of her life. O-Ei spends the bulk of her time assisting her divorced father who cares about his art and not much else.

Landmark’s Cinema Opens Fri., Oct. 28

Directed by Luis Buñuel (Mexico, 1962, 95 min.)

A high-society dinner party at a Mexico City mansion devolves into madness and depravity when the genteel guests discover that, quite mysteriously, they are unable to leave. As the guests’ polite chitchat gives way to paranoia, scandal-mongering and open warfare, Luis Buñuel introduces ever more surreal imagery to the dreamlike scenario.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., Sun., Oct. 30, 3 p.m.

No Regrets for Our Youth

Ixcanul

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Directed by Jayro Bustamante

Miss Hokusai

behind the school, until new student Andrea arrives and enters her solitary world. The two girls quickly strike up a friendship, finding solace in each other and escaping from their restrictive parents and normative classmates.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 2, 5:30 p.m., Tue., Oct. 4, 5:45 p.m., Wed., Oct. 5, 5:45 p.m.

(Japan, 1946, 110 min.)

Setsuko Hara worked just once with the legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Fittingly, the result is the only film in Kurosawa’s substantial body of work featuring a female protagonist.

Hara gives a remarkable performance as Yukie, who, in the militarist years leading up to World War II, evolves from a bourgeois student to the wife of a dissident author to a committed social activist.

American History Museum Sat., Oct. 8, 2 p.m.

PhOtO: PhiliPPe Penel / cOntact FilMs

Marie Wawa, left, and Mungau Dain star in “Tanna,” a visually breathtaking Romeo-and-Juliet love story that takes place among South Pacific tribes still living by their ancient laws, untouched by modern society.

(Guatemala/France, 2015, 93 min.)

The brilliant debut by Guatemalan writer/director Jayro Bustamante is a hypnotically beautiful fusion of fact and fable, depicting a traditionbound indigenous Mayan family living on the slopes of an active volcano, where they earn a meager living as coffee-pickers. Maria is a beautiful 17-year-old girl with dreams of seeing the larger world. Her parents arrange an advantageous marriage for her with the coffee plantation foreman, but Maria prefers her own choice: Pepe, a handsome young coffee cutter who plans to migrate to the United States. Maria seduces Pepe to run away with him, but after promises and clandestine meetings, Pepe takes off, leaving her pregnant, alone and in disgrace (Spanish and Maya).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

La Gunguna Directed by Ernesto Alemany (Dominican Republic, 2015, 87 min.)

Punchy and picturesque, this is the tale of a legendary .22-caliber pistol changing hands between members of the Dominican criminal underground.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 2, 9:25 p.m., Mon., Oct. 3, 5:15 p.m.

Magallanes Directed by Amador del Solar (Peru/Argentina/Spain, 2015, 109 min.)

Decades after Magallanes served in the army under the deranged Colonel Rivero, he chauffeurs the now-frail war criminal around Lima in his taxi.

When he crosses paths with a former sex slave of the colonel, he’s inspired to atone for his own past indiscretions and seek revenge against the colonel.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat. Oct. 1, 12 p.m.

Neruda Directed by Pablo Larraín (Chile/Argentina/France/Spain, 2016, 107 min.)

Forced into hiding in 1948 when Chile’s political winds shifted, Pablo Nerudo travels across Chile with his Argentinian wife and minders from Chile’s Communist party, staying in safe havens. Nerud’’s movements are tracked by Inspector Oscar Peluchon-

neau, a dogged gumshoe who loves detective fiction and relishes his role as the poet’s nemesis.

AFI Silver Theatre Tue., Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m.

to escape their misery and flee to the capital city of Bogotá.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Oct. 2, 3:15 p.m., Mon., Oct. 3, 9:15 p.m.

The Olive Tree (El Olivo)

The Room of Bones (El Cuarto de los Huesos)

Directed by Icíar Bollaín (Spain, 2016, 100 min.)

Alma’s family has deep roots in Castellón, Spain, having produced olive oil there for generations. But tough times led them to sell their prized thousand-year-old olive tree and transition to chicken farming.

Determined to save her family’s fortunes, Alma sets off on a quixotic quest to return the family heirloom to its proper place.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Oct. 1, 6:45 p.m., Sun., Oct. 2, 1 p.m.

Directed by Marcela Zamora Chamorro (El Salvador/Mexico, 2015, 61 min.)

Over the last three decades, forensic anthropologists in El Salvador have accumulated thousands of unidentified remains, piling them up heartbreakingly in one cramped and overflowing room at the Legal Medicine Institute. This chilling documentary by filmmaker Marcela Zamora follows the stories of four mothers who, like so many others, desperately continue to search for their missing children.

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m.

Oscuro Animal Directed by Felipe Guerrero (Colombia/Argentina/Netherlands/ Germany/Greece, 2016, 107 min.)

Deep in the Colombian jungle, in a war-torn region ruled by paramilitaries, three courageous women decide

Take Me for a Ride (Uio: Sácame a Pasear) Directed by Micaela Rueda (Ecuador, 2016, 70 min.)

High school senior Sara is a loner, sneaking off to smoke cigarettes

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 Cinema Opens Fri., Oct. 21

VanUatU Tanna Directed by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean (Australia/Vanuatu, 2016, 100 min.)

Set on the lush tropical island of Tanna in the South Pacific, this visually breathtaking Romeo-and-Juliet love story takes place among tribes still living by their ancient laws, untouched by modern society. Wawa, a free-spirited young girl, falls in love with Dain, the handsome grandson of the chief—but the chief promises her in an arranged marriage to a rival tribe as part of a peace treaty. The young lovers must choose between their hearts and the future of the tribe, while the villagers must wrestle with preserving their traditional culture and adapting it to increasing outside demands for individual freedom.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Diplomatic Spouses CONTINUED • Page 35

rainy season,” she said, although she admits, “I don’t like cold weather!”

Perhaps that’s no surprise given that Costa Rica is a lush tropical getaway, where many American retirees in fact have set up shop.

But Gonzalez stressed that the Central American nation is an economically prosperous, democratically stable oasis with a hard work ethic and forward-thinking mentality.

“Maybe tourists think that everybody in Costa Rica lives a vacation lifestyle. However, the professional work ethic is very similar to the United States. Last year, Costa Rica generated 99 percent of its electricity from renewable resources. Our number-one exports are financial services for corporations.

Our second is medical devices. We have very well-educated people,” she said.

“Costa Rica has practically universal health care coverage and social security for almost everyone. We are number one in

costa rican ambassador roman Macaya hayes met his wife thais gonzalez carballada in Philadelphia while he was studying at Wharton and she was interning at a law firm.

English proficiency in all of Latin America and [have] the highest literacy rate in Latin America. We have more American students studying in our country than any other Latin American country,” she added.

“We are considered the happiest country on the planet, according to Happy Planet Index.

‘Pura vida,’ or ‘pure life,’ tells you how Costa Ricans feel about their country. They enjoy the beauty of nature and the good life.” WD Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 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 Oct. 1 to 20

Installation: Con Los Brazos Abiertos – Embracing Mexico This installation by Mexican graffiti artist Saner features approximately 20 Mexican artists and icons and celebrates the significant contributions that they have made to arts and culture.

Kennedy Center Oct. 4 to 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 Oct. 4 to Feb. 7

No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting “No Boundaries” showcases the work 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

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

with boatloads of illusions and ancestral seeds of indigenous peoples merge in “Nexos,” a series of etchings

by Buenos Aires-born artist Dora Garraffo that establish visible and invisible bonds between the magical and the concrete. Ancient wood carvings that used to be figureheads of steamships take on a new life and meaning in her works, while images of women, men and children, surrounded by nature, reveal colors and textures of a reality that identifies us.

Embassy of Argentina Oct. 20 to March 26

The Great Swindle: Works

by Santiago Montoya

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

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

Oct. 14 to Jan. 8

Through Oct. 23

Ragnar Kjartansson

Daughter of China, Resident Alien

Oct. 8 to Jan. 8

Whitfield Lovell: The Kin Series & Related Works

“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 Oct. 15 to Feb. 20

Two recurring themes in Hung Liu’s work are refugees and heroines, reflecting Liu’s experience as an immigrant, woman and American.

Liu, who grew up in Maoist China, examines sacrifice, memory and history through works that navigate the complex and never-ending tension between emigration (with its emphasis on leaving one’s homeland) and immigration (with its emphasis on arriving in a new place).

American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center

The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts

Through Oct. 23

“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

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

This interdisciplinary public art project celebrates human rights and global justice, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the murders of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and co-worker Ronni Karpen Moffitt in D.C. on Sept. 21, 1976.

Letelier and Karpen Moffitt were killed by a car bomb explosion.

Muralist Francisco Letelier, son of Orlando Letelier, worked in collaboration with youth participants from the Latin American Youth Center to create a large-scale mural in the museum’s sculpture garden.

American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center

Oct. 8 to Jan. 8

Through Oct. 18

Oct. 5 to Jan. 7

The Overflow of Productivity Logic

People on the Move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

Nexos: Etchings

by Dora Garraffo The different cultures that arrived

40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Todas las Manos

Through Oct. 31

Beyond Hangeul Contemporary works by six Korean artists are inspired by the elegant, adaptable design of Korea’s native

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 writing system, hangeul. Not only to be appreciated by Korean speakers, this exhibition looks beyond hangeul as a functional communication tool, exploring the past, present and future of hangeul through its structural value as well as its aesthetic and formal beauty. Featuring works of installation, painting, calligraphy and sculpture, this exhibition also coincides with Hangeul Day, the Oct. 9 national holiday in Korea celebrating hangeul’s creation in the 15th century. It has since stood the test of time as one of the world’s most scientific, easily learned alphabets, profoundly impacting literacy and education when it was introduced.

Korean Cultural Center Through Nov. 4

2,000 Miles: Divided Land, Common Humanity This exhibition aims to contribute to our ongoing conversation about walls, borders and people. Until recently, the idea of separating territories and peoples via manmade borders seemed an outdated relic from the past. Recent political developments, however, including the creation of new barriers at the European Union’s borders, have made such barriers a topic of heated debate. Germany’s own past in this regard serves as inspiration for two German artists, Daniel Schwarz and Stefan Falke, who take a close look at the geography and the cultural and social commonalities on the two sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Goethe-Institut Through Dec. 11

Spirit of the Wild: Through the Eyes of Mattias Klum All life on earth is interconnected. Cities, 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

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

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 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. 5

North Is Freedom This photographic essay celebrates the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery in the United States by fleeing to Canada. In the years before the American Civil War, approximately 30,000 fugitive slaves followed the “North Star” to freedom, using a network of clandestine routes that became known as the “Underground Railroad.” Some 150 years later, Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc explores the northern end of the “Underground Railroad” and presents a series of 24 portraits of descendants. This exhibit honors the contributions of once-enslaved African Americans and their descendants to Canada and celebrates the opening of the newest Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Embassy of Canada Art Gallery

Through Jan. 8

NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection Born in 16 countries across five continents, 37 contemporary artists use their aesthetically diverse work to address varied political and intellectual themes. This exhibition centers on the process of making as well as on images of the female body — both topics that extend from the feminist art movement of the 1970s.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Jan. 28

DeLIMITations This exhibit chronicles a 2,400 milelong, 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 Feb. 12

Notes from the Desert: Photographs by Gauri Gill 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 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 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 Thu., Oct. 13, 8 p.m.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollack Dance Company: Wallflower This startling and ethereal contemporary dance piece floats like a waking dream and flutters on the edges of remembrance and anticipation.

WD | Culture | Events

Costumed from head to toe in colorful hand-knitted body suits, the 10 dancers throw away the conventions of Western movement and create startling shapes, unexpected compositions and shocking sculptural configurations with their bodies.

Tickets are $25.

University of Maryland Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

DISCUSSIONS Tue., Oct. 4, 6 p.m.

Famous Luxury Fashion Houses: A Remarkable Family History The Georgetown University Italian Research Institute, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy and Georgetown Retail and Luxury Association, a student organization, invites you to a conference on the extraordinary family history and creativity of two famous luxury brands: Salvatore Ferragamo and Oscar de la Renta.

The featured speakers, Massimo Ferragamo and Alex Bolen, will share the family history of the two famous houses, the creativity of their collection and managerial skills that have ensured the global success of their fashion luxury brands. Admission is free but registration is required.

Georgetown University Intercultural Center Auditorium Tue., Oct. 4, 6:30 p.m.

Women’s Crossfit Hour Get in shape with D.C.’s leading pioneers in fitness, featuring CrossFit coach Danielle Dionne, who will turn the Czech Embassy’s main hall into a training facility. Beginners and enthusiasts are welcome to join in the Work Out of the Day (WOD) and learn about the positive impact of proper nutrition and mental focus on their personal fitness goals from accomplished female athletes. This program is a part of the “Mutual Inspirations Festival 2016 – Martina Navrátilová,” honoring the best tennis player of all time, among men and women, and trailblazer on healthy living, who believes in training and having fun through various sports.

Embassy of the Czech Republic Wed., Oct. 12, 6:30 p.m.

It’s Alive! Benefits of Fermentation The Japanese Embassy shares the unique culture of traditional Japanese cuisine and culture with Takashi Sato, president of the Japanese soy sauce company San-J, who will describe the processes behind fermentation that produce the unique taste characteristic of Washoku cuisine, as well as Daisuke Utagawa, owner of the local ramen shop Daikaya and sushi shop Sushiko, who will present the benefits of fermented ingredients and their use in Japanese cooking. Admission is free but registration is required.

Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC)

FESTIVALS Sat., Oct. 5, 6:30

Noche Ibero Americana Don’t miss a night of food, music,

art and more as the Ibero-American Cultural Attachés Association (AACIA) presents Noche Ibero Americana!

Come taste cuisine from Paraguay, Mexico, El Salvador and Venezuela while sipping on Argentinian and Chilean wine, Costa Rican beer, Dominican rum mojitos and Peruvian pisco. Finish it all off with Portuguese natas, Ecuadorean chocolate and Guatemalan coffee. The program will include music from Spain by the Pavel Urkiza duet with percussion by Rigel Pérez; dance from Panama by GRUFOLPAWA; and music from Colombia

by Verny Varela. The Mexican Cultural Institute’s exhibit will also be on display and the evening will include a raffle for two round-trip business class plane tickets to Lima, as well as Brazilian Cachaça, Cuban cigars and Roberto Canessa’s book “I had to survive.” Plus, all guests will walk away with a special surprise from Honduras. Tickets are $79.

Mexican Cultural Institute 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 Fri., Oct. 7, 7 p.m.

Ukraine – Journey to Freedom: A Century of Classical Music for Violin and Piano The dynamic Ivakhiv-Gadeliya Duo has performed in venues and festivals across the U.S. to great critical acclaim. Both natives of Ukraine, Solomiya and Angelina met and formed their duo at Stony Brook University while working on their doctorates in musical arts. Tickets are $95, including Ukrainian buffet, wine and nearby parking. For information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Ukraine Sun., Oct. 9, 3 p.m.

Quinteto Latino Quinteto Latino blends the vibrant colors and vigorous rhythms of Latin American music with the sumptuous voices of the wind quintet: flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon. Whether exploring new twists on traditional folk songs or premiering works by living composers, these

five musicians perform with impeccable artistry and infectious energy.

Tickets are $25.

University of Maryland Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Sat., Oct. 15, 6 p.m.

Eastern European Folk Dance Variety Show Featuring Talija Art Company Established in 1998 in Belgrade, Talija Art Company performs folk dances from all regions of the former Yugoslavia, as well as from Hungary, Romania, Russia and Bulgaria. Talija’s core repertoire is comprised of the customs and folk tales gathered from these cultures and the troupe uses motion as the element binding the colorful traditions of music and dance together. To date, Talija has given more than 4,000 performances throughout the world. Tickets are $20 in advance (www.SvLuka.org/Talija) or $25 at the door.

St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church Potomac, Md. Fri., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., Sat., Oct. 15, 8 p.m.

Havana Cuba All-Stars The Havana Cuba All-Stars will conjure white sand beaches, swirling cigar smoke and swinging Latin jazz in “Cuban Nights,” a program that features Cuba’s most prominent musicians sharing their rich musical heritage, from the “Rumba” to the “Cha-Cha-Cha” to the “Habanera.”

Tickets are $30 to $50.

George Mason University Center for the Arts (Oct. 14) Hylton Performing Arts Center (Oct. 15) Mon., Oct. 17, 8 p.m.

Omara Portuondo – ’85 Tour Omara Portuondo, the great Cuban diva and artistic ambassador of her country, wants to celebrate her 85th birthday with a grand fiesta that represents the impressive sweep of her career — on every stop meeting with old friends and new to perform together much loved Cuban classics. Tickets are $45 to $65.

GW Lisner Auditorium Thu., Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Nilko Andreas Guarin, Guitar; Mélanie Genin, Harp: United Nations Day Commemoration Classical Guitarist Nilko Andreas Guarin has been praised as an “electrifying performer for his powerful stage presence and spontaneity that grows irresistible.”

Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 performing with the Azlo Orchestra, Andreas has been captivating audiences in two continents as a soloist and chamber musician. Tickets are $150, including buffet and wine.

For information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Colombian Residence Sat., Oct. 22, 2 p.m.

Adam Levin: Masters of Spanish Guitar Acclaimed American guitarist Adam Levin has been praised as an “exciting

and powerful player who takes chances” by Soundboard Magazine.

His solo concert at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain will unite beloved Spanish classics with works from today’s Spanish masters. Admission is free but registration if required (www.spainculture.us).

Former Residence of the Ambassador of Spain Wed., Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Cimbalom Duo: 60th Anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising This duo combines two master cimbalom players who, over the past few decades in their respective careers, have done more to raise the global profile of this emblematic Hungarian instrument than anyone else. Kálmán Sándor Balogh has enjoyed a multifaceted career, collaborating with many well-known Hungarian bands and touring the world as leader of his own ensemble and as a soloist, while Miklós Lukács has earned a reputation in the contemporary classical and jazz spheres, performing with leading European orchestras. Tickets are $95, including buffet reception. For information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Hungary Fri., Oct. 28, 8 p.m.

Washington Performing Arts Presents Hilary Hahn and Robert Levin Three-time Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn brings a wide-ranging program in a recital performance with pianist Robert Levin. In this concert, she conjoins these two major currents of her career, performing timeless works alongside three new partitas by Spanish composer Antón García Abril, commissioned

by Washington Performing Arts.

Tickets are $38 to $95.

Kennedy Center

THEATER Oct. 3 to Nov. 7

THEatrical SELECTIONS In the weeks leading up to the nation’s presidential election, five leading D.C. theatres will collaborate to bring politics and drama to the stage in this free, politically charged play reading series. Each theatre will host a reading of a play they feel reflects the country’s current political and social environment, and will consider political moments from burgeoning fascism in the 1930s to partisan horse-trading in modern America. For information, visit www.shakespearetheatre.org/ theatrical-selections/.

Various locations Oct. 5 to 23

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Based on the bestselling novel, this heartwarming story has an unforgettable young hero whose investigation of a mystery leads to a life-changing adventure in “one of the most fully immersive works ever to wallop

Broadway” (New York Times).

Tickets are $39 to $149.

Kennedy Center Oct. 7 to 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 Through Oct. 8

The Call When Annie and Peter decide to adopt, they set their sights on a child from Africa. But just how much of Africa are they willing to bring into their home? Long-buried secrets surface, surprising new tensions with old friends arise and their marriage is put to the test — all in the face of one startling choice. With keen acumen, this portrait of cultural divide casts global issues into the heart of an American home. Tickets are $25.

University of Maryland Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Oct. 8 to 22

Volcanoes – Tales of El Salvador For generations, the popular Salvadoran folk tales of the cadejos, the magic dogs of the volcanoes, have been passed down from family to family. With lively music and movement, the stories of the cadejos now come to life on stage as they protect Salvadorans at home and abroad from eruptions of volcanoes, thieves in the night and journeys across borders (appropriate for ages 5 to 9).

Tickets are $10 for children and $12 for adults.

GALA Hispanic Theatre Through Oct. 9

Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops Five different women named Betty collide at the intersection of anger, sex and the “thea-tah” in awardwinning playwright Jen Silverman’s absurdist romantic comedy that is at once hysterical, inspired and boldly uncompromising. Tickets start at $35.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Through Oct. 16

Come From Away “Come From Away,” based on the heart-warming true story of how a small Canadian town cared for 6,579 airline passengers stranded in Newfoundland in the wake of 9/11, has been extended due to popular demand. The musical, featuring a rousing score of folk and rock, honors the better angels of our nature, revealing hope and humanity in a time of darkness. Please call for ticket information.

Ford’s Theatre

Through Oct. 23

Motherstruck As a teenager in Jamaica, Staceyann Chin lived in fear of an unwanted pregnancy. As a lesbian performance poet in Brooklyn in her ever-later 30s, she craves nothing more than a child ... only to face twists of love, biology and health insurance. A hilarious, intimate and heart-shaking story of the best-laid plans and hairpin turns.

Tickets start at $45.

Studio Theatre Oct. 28 to 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 Through Oct. 30

Dante’s Inferno A lost traveler must navigate a treacherous journey through the nine circles of hell in search of spiritual redemption and his lost love. This revitalized, wordless version of Synetic’s emotionally charged production promises to be a wicked whirlwind of stunning visuals, hauntingly vivid original music, and powerful physicality. Tickets start at $35 (recommended for ages 16 and up for violence and partial nudity).

Synetic Theater Through Oct. 30

The Little Foxes There are people who eat and there are those who get eaten. This fall, Arena Stage serves up Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes,” a delicious drama about family greed and betrayal. Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger stars as Regina Giddens, clawing her way to wealth with her equally calculating brothers.

When their plan to control the local cotton mill is thwarted, they’ll turn to ever more devious schemes, even as it further divides their family. Tickets are $40 to $90.

Arena Stage Through Oct. 30

Sense and Sensibility 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 heart-wrenching romances.

Tickets are $30 to $75.

Folger Theatre 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 Company Lansburgh Theatre

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 41

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight

October 2016

Haiti Ambassador Insider Series On Sept. 8, nearly 100 people gathered at Kimpton’s recently opened Glover Park Hotel to hear Haitian Ambassador Paul Altidor talk about his beleaguered Caribbean homeland for The Washington Diplomat’s fifth Ambassador Insider Series (AIS).

More than 200 years ago, Haiti became the world’s first black republic. Today, the country — which for two centuries has endured natural disasters, dictatorships and chronic poverty — is home to 10 million people, making it one of the most populous nations of the Caribbean.

Altidor told The Washington Diplomat’s Larry Luxner that he has full confidence that his country will hold presidential elections Oct. 9 as planned, despite constant delays and election-related violence ahead of the actual voting, in which 27 candidates are running for president. He added that his country welcomes foreign investment but does not want outright charity, saying the time for pity is long past. Altidor, who took office in 2012 — two years after an earthquake destroyed Haiti’s capital, Portau-Prince — also discussed the role of the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund, which he ran before his current job, as well as his desire for the United Nations to pull its peacekeeping troops out of his country.

The Ambassador Insider Series is an exclusive program hosted by The Diplomat to meet and network with the city’s foreign envoys in an intimate setting at some of D.C.’s top venues. Past events have welcomed envoys from Azerbaijan, Iraq, Barbados and the European Union. Photos: Mohamed Siddig

Ursula McNamara, area director of sales and marketing for Kimpton Hotels, welcomes guest to the recently opened Glover Park Hotel.

Lola Poisson of the Children and Families Global Development Fund Inc.; Paul Joseph; former Haitian Ambassador Ray Joseph; real estate agent Leila Beale; Tatiana Florencio Silva; consultant Frantz Kenol; Washington Diplomat news editor Larry Luxner; Ambassador of Haiti to the Organization of American States Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste; Ambassador of Haiti Paul Altidor; Todd Friedlander of ACG Architects; and Addison Nottingham of ACG Architects.

Ambassador of Haiti Paul Altidor.

Gabriela Coman of Rubin and Rudman LLP; Director of the International Patient Program at the George Washington University Hospital Helen Salazar; and Head of Communications and Protocol at the Embassy of Panama Carolina Kitras.

Angelica Cherkashin and Dmitry Cherkashin of the Russian Embassy.

Former Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph asks a question.

Consultant Frantz Kenol talks to Lola Poisson, wife of the former Haitian ambassador.

Former Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph talks to current Haitian Ambassador Paul Altidor.

Former Ambassador of Barbados John Beale, now with the Organization of American States, talks with Patrick Gilgallon of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

Director of the International Patient Program at the George Washington University Hospital Helen Salazar, Ambassador of Haiti Paul Altidor and Gabriela Coman of Rubin and Rudman LLP.

Richard Chalkey of Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.) office and Bert Johnson.

Lydia Das of the Grand Bevy, Washington Diplomat news editor Larry Luxner and Rasa Wickrema of WickAdvisory.

Fredrik Skoglund of the International Language Institute and Mark Ranson of the Heart of the Mountain Mission.

Todd Friedlander of ACG Architects.

Former Ambassador of Barbados John Beale, Leila Beale, Lola Poisson and former Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph.

42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

President of ECCOS Educational Consulting Marie-Claude Svaldi and Sam Adebayo of the United Nations Federal Credit Union.

Consultant Frantz Kenol and Paul Joseph.

Doug Abbey, managing partner at iCons DC.

Tabatha Gilmore of MESH International and Jen Welan Morris of the American Bankers Association.

Kristin Roach of the World Affairs Council-D.C., Washington Diplomat managing editor Anna Gawel and consultant Aseel Albanna.

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Sister Cities International 60th Anniversary Sister Cities International, a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates connections between U.S. cities and communities around the world, marked its 60th anniversary this July with a series of events.

More than 500 people came out to celebrate with a kickoff reception at the Japanese ambassador’s residence; an opening ceremony and flag parade; the Lou Wozar Diplomatic Awards Dinner; a Youth Leadership Summit; and various conference sessions. Sister Cities International boasts 570 member communities forming 2,300 partnerships in 150 countries spanning six continents (also see “Bridging Divides: Sister Cities International Marks 60 Years of Citizen Diplomacy” in the July 2016 issue).

Photos: Sister Cities International

Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan, left, and Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane join two Girl Scouts of America from the D.C. chapter.

Photo: James Cullum

Mayor of Herat Fahad Niyaesh (a sister city of Council Bluffs, Iowa); Zalmai Attarpoor; Senior Director for Global Engagement on the National Security Council Courtney Beale; Fatema Jafari and a guest.

Ambassador of Armenia Grigor Hovhannissian, Ambassador of Malta Pierre Clive Agius, Director of Social Enterprise for Politico Frances Holuba and Ambassador of Serbia Djerdj Matkovic.

Frank Grant-Acquah of Hanover Park, Ill., Nomaswazi Mahlangu, Ambassador of South Africa Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu, Ambassador of Ghana Joseph Henry Smith, Douha Yehia Smith and Herbert Porter of Hanover Park, Ill.

Ambassador of Ireland Anne Anderson, Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane and Ambassador of Finland Kirsti Kauppi.

Photo: James Cullum Photo: James Cullum

Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae.

Senior Director for Global Engagement and Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council Courtney Beale, Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae, Nobuko Sasae and Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane.

Photo: James Cullum

Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is interviewed by Kathleen Matthews.

Ambassador of Afghanistan Hamdullah Mohib and Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane.

Adm. Thad Allen, executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton and former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Danny Kreps of Don Beyer Volvo and Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat.

Photo: James Cullum

Quansheng Guo, Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane, Kevin Hall and Efren Herrera.

Photo: James Cullum

Photo: James Cullum

Teri Simmons, Launa Kowalski and Taylor Woodruff of Atlanta, Georgia.

Minister Li Kexin of the Chinese Embassy, Sister Cities International President and CEO Mary Kane and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Photo: James Cullum

Ambassador of Rwanda Mathilde Mukantabana, center, and guests.

The Sister Cities Youth Leadership Summit had a record attendance with 115 youth traveling to D.C. from around the world.

President and CEO of PeaceTech Lab Sheldon Himelfarb; Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council Future of Iran Initiative; Director of Global Engagement at the National Security Council Sarah Heck; Mayor of Herat, Afghanistan, Farhad Niyaesh; and Somaia Ramish of the Herat delegation.

Christine Warnke of Hogan and Lovells LLP, Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae, Nobuko Sasae and Anastasia Dellaccio.

Photo: James Cullum

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016 | 43

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight

October 2016

Dominica Farewell

Coalition of the Willing at Britain

Shahin Mafi, founder and CEO of Home Health Connection Inc., hosted a farewell reception for Ambassador of Dominica Hubert John Charles and his economist wife Sylvia Charles at her Potomac, Md., residence on Aug. 18. Charles, who previously served various postings with UNESCO in Barbados, South Africa, Mozambique and Nigeria, is leaving after six years in office (also see “Tiny Dominica Seeks U.S. Help to Rebuild After Erika’s Devastation” in the December 2015 issue).

Who says Washington wonks don’t have soul? The Coalition of the Willing, a band begun by several ambassadors to NATO, performed at a private musical reception at the British Residence on Sept. 8. The band, started by U.S. Ambassador to NATO Alexander Vershbow, features a rotating cast of members, which now includes Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken on guitar and vocals, former Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, former Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield, former Ambassador of Hungary András Simonyi and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

Calling them “not just a musical super group but a policy super group,” British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch joked that “as someone with a total obsession with the music of the late ’60s and ’70s … this was unquestionably the greatest period in rock and popular music in history. I repeat, this is a fact.”

Ambassador of Dominica Hubert John Charles, his wife Sylvia Charles, Andrew Gelfuso of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Ambassador of Nicaragua Francisco Obadiah Campbell Hooker and Ambassador of the Bahamas Eugene Newry.

British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch introduces the band.

Photos: British Embassy

Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter.

Former Ambassador of Belize Nestor Mendez, now assistant secretary-general of the Organization of American States, and his wife Elvira Rosela Mendez.

Former Ambassador of Barbados John Beale, now with the Organization of American States, right, bids farewell to his friend, Ambassador of Dominica Hubert John Charles, as embassy liaison Jan Du Plain looks on.

Guests included Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, center.

Former Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield, former Ambassador of Hungary András Simonyi, lawyer Dan McDermott, Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken, Lady Vanessa Darroch, British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and former Energy Secretary Dan Poneman.

Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis Thelma Phillip-Browne, Andrew Gelfuso of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis to the Organization of American States Everson Hull and Sandra Hull.

The Washington Diplomat managing editor Anna Gawel, embassy liaison Jan Du Plain, real estate agent Leila Beale, hostess Shahin Mafi and Lena Alfi of the Middle East Children’s Institute.

Former Ambassador of Hungary András Simonyi, Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and former Energy Secretary Dan Poneman.

Central American Independence

Pianist John Gardecki performs for Ambassador of Dominica Hubert John Charles.

Andrew Gelfuso of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and former Ambassador of St Vincent and the Grenadines La Celia Prince, now with the Organization of American States.

Ambassadors from the member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) to the U.S. and Organization of American States (OAS) came out to the OAS Hall of the Americas Sept. 12 to celebrate the 193rd anniversary of Central American independence.

Ambassador of Nicaragua Francisco Obadiah Campbell Hooker leads a toast of Central American envoys.

Politics, Media and Women The Institute for Education (IFE) hosted a political discussion on the U.S. election, the role of the media in covering campaigns and how women have acquired power in the White House over half a century.

Guests included, from left: Presidential Innovation Fellow Jackie Kazil; Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis Thelma Phillip-Browne; Google’s Michele Lynch; Microsoft’s Jennifer Rudy; Ambassador of Albania Floreta Faber; Ambassador of Guatemala Marithza Ruiz de Vielman; Ambassador of Luxembourg Sylvie Lucas; journalist Jan Smith; Ambassador of Finland Kirsti Kauppi; journalist Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post; Ambassador of Kosovo Vlora Çitaku; coach Kathy Kemper; Ambassador of Ireland Anne Anderson; and Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Al-Mughairy. Photo: Institute for Education

44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | October 2016

Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the Organization of American States Bernardo Álvarez Herrera.

WD | October 2016

around the world appointments Belgium Dirk Wouters became ambassador of Belgium to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016. Ambassador Wouters’s diplomatic career spans four decades and has included both multilateral and bilateral assignments, primarily focused on European affairs. Prior to his appointment in D.C., Ambassador Wouters served as permanent representative of Belgium to the European Union (2011-16). Before that, as chief of staff to the minister of foreign affairs, Ambassador Wouters was one of the main architects of the Belgian EU Presidency, which undertook key foreign policy decisions on Afghanistan and Libya. From 2009 to 2011, he was diplomatic advisor and sherpa in the office of Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Wouters was permanent representative of Belgium to the Political and Security Committee of the EU (2003-09), at a time when the common foreign and Ambassador security policy was framed under Dirk Wouters the leadership of Javier Solana.

He was also directly involved in several negotiations on revising the European Treaties (Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon) and assisted Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene as vice president of the convention on the future of the European Union (2000-02). Ambassador Wouters is no stranger to the United States, having lived in New York while deputy permanent representative of Belgium to the United Nations (1995-2000). While at the U.N., he was involved in the establishment of the International Criminal Court. He was also posted twice in Rome and speaks fluent Italian in addition to English, Dutch, French and German.

Ambassador Wouters has a background in law and economics and obtained degrees from the University of Antwerp; the University of Louvain; the London School of Economics and Political Science; and the Institute of Higher Studies in Geneva. He has been invited to lecture at the Catholic University of Leuven; the Catholic University of Louvain-LaNeuve; the University of Brussels; and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP). Born in 1955, Ambassador Wouters is married to Katrin Van Bragt and they have one daughter and two grandsons. He is an accomplished long-distance runner and an Italian culture enthusiast.

Bulgaria Georgi Ovcharov assumed the position of first secretary/police liaison on Aug. 8, replacing Ivan Auchev, who departed the

post Aug. 20. Ovcharov previously served in the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior in the Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime.

Stefka Yovcheva assumed the position of first secretary on Aug. 15, replacing Lyubomire Georgieva, who departed the post Aug. 14.

Brazil Sergio Silva Do Amaral became ambassador of Brazil to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016. As a career diplomat, he has been posted to Paris, Bonn, Geneva and Washington. He was also ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom and France.

Ambassador Amaral, who was born in São Paulo, previously served in various high-level positions in the Brazilian government, including vice minister for the environment, secretary of social communication and spokesman for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. He was also minister of development, industry and foreign trade, as well as chairman of the Foreign Trade Council of Ministers (CAMEX) and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). In addition, Ambassador Amaral was debt negotiator for Brazil at the Bank Advisory Committee and the Paris Club; alternate governor to the IMF and the World Bank; and alternate representative of Brazil to the GATT during the Uruguay Round negotiations. More recently, Ambassador Amaral was the chairman of the BrazilChina Business Council; director of the Center for American Studies at FAAP; member of the Strategic Council of the Industry Federation of São Paulo; and counselor at Felsberg and Associates, a law firm. He was a member of the board of WWF Brazil; the managing board of AES Eletropaulo and AES Tietê; and counselor to the International Board of Total and Plastic Omnium in France. He received a law degree at the University of São Paulo and later a diploma of superior studies in political science (DESS) at the University of Paris I (Panthéon Sorbonne). He was also assistant professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia. Ambassador Amaral is divorced and has four children. He speaks six languages and has been awarded several Brazilian and foreign decorations.

Latvia Andris Teikmanis became ambassador of Latvia to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016, having previously served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, as well as nonresident ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, since 2013. He also held numerous top postings in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including secretary of state (2008-13); ambassador of Latvia to Russia (2005-08);

undersecretary of state (2002-05); and ambassador to Germany (1998-2002). In addition, he was ambassador of Latvia (1995-98) and ambassador-at-large (199495) to the Council of Europe and a member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia (1990-93), which on May 4, 1990, signed the Ambassador Andris Teikmanis declaration of Latvia’s independence. Other postings include chairman of the Riga City Council (1990-94), a judge in the Kirov District Court in Riga (1988-90) and an investigator with the Riga City Police Board (1983-88). Ambassador Teikmanis earned a law degree from Latvian State University and has studied at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. He speaks English, German, French and Russian and is married with two children. Hobbies include opera, theater, jogging and cycling.

Liechtenstein Kurt Jaeger became ambassador of Liechtenstein to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016, having previously served as ambassador to the European Union and Belgium from 2010 to 2016. He has over 25 years of professional experience in international Ambassador regulatory affairs, of which 15 years Kurt Jaeger were spent in the airline industry and civil aviation administration. Prior to his ambassadorial posting, from 2005 to 2010, he was elected one of three members of the Board of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Surveillance Authority in charge of monitoring and enforcing the application of EU law in the European Economic Area. Ambassador Jaeger’s academic career includes a degree acquired in 1987 from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and an LL.M. in 1989 from McGill University in Montreal.

After his postgraduate studies, during which he also worked as a research fellow in public international law at Fribourg University, he joined the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation for six years, where he was first in charge of international air transport regulation and policy and later became executive assistant to the director-general for civil aviation. Ambassador Jaeger subsequently switched to the private sector, taking on positions in a private law practice in Liechtenstein. He then became secretary of the board of directors and general counsel of the Swiss regional air carrier Crossair. Later, he

world holidays AFGHANISTAN

BAHRAIN

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 2: Al-Hijrah

ALGERIA

BELIZE

Oct. 2: Awal Moharem

Oct. 12: Columbus Day

ARGENTINA

BENIN

Oct. 12: Columbus Day

Oct. 26: Armed Forces Day

AUSTRALIA

BOTSWANA

Oct. 3: Labor Day

Oct. 1: Public Holiday

Oct. 10: Thanksgiving Day

AUSTRIA

BRAZIL

CHILE

Oct. 26: National Day

Oct. 12: St. Aparecida’s Day

Oct. 12: Dia de la Raza

Oct. 1: Independence Day Oct. 28: Greek National Day (Ochi Day)

AZERBAIJAN

BRUNEI

CHINA

CZECH REPUBLIC

Oct. 18: Independence Day

Oct. 2: First Day of Hijriah

Oct. 1: National Day

Oct. 28: Founding Day

BAHAMAS

BURUNDI

COLOMBIA

DJIBOUTI

Oct. 12: Discovery Day

Oct. 13: Rwagasore Day

Oct. 12: Dia de la Raza

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 21: Ndadaye Day

CAMBODIA Oct. 23: Paris Peace Agreement Day Oct. 30-Nov. 1: Birthday of the King

CROATIA

CANADA

Oct. 10: Beginning of the Independence War

CUBA

CYPRUS

ECUADOR

GEORGIA

Oct. 9: Independence of Guayaquil

Oct. 14: Svetitskhovloba

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

GERMANY

FIJI Oct. 10: Fiji Day

Veronique Dockendorf assumed the position of deputy chief of mission on Aug. 10, replacing Olivier Baldauff, who departed the post Aug. 9 to become deputy director of political affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dockendorf previously served as deputy director of political affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012-16) and first secretary at the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations (2011-12).

Stan Myck assumed the position of counselor/consul on Sept. 1, having previously served in the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Luxembourg Embassy in Lisbon and the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations.

Peru

Tunisia

Mail to: 1921 Florida ave. nW, #53353 Washington Dc 20009

Oct. 12: Independence Day

Ambassador Sylvie Lucas

Oct. 28: Ochi Day

E-mail to: news@washdiplomat.com

Oct. 8: Independence Day

Sylvie Lucas became ambassador of Luxembourg to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016, replacing Jean-Louis Wolzfeld, who departed the post July 5 to retire from the Foreign Service. Ambassador Lucas most recently served as Luxembourg’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since 2011.

GREECE

Fax to: (301) 949-0065

Oct. 12: Dia de la Raza

Luxembourg

Carlos Jose Pareja Rios became ambassador of Peru to the United States on Sept. 16, 2016, having previously served as director-general of Peru’s Directorate General of Africa, Middle East and Gulf Countries since 2015 and, before that, director-general Ambassador of Peru’s Directorate General of America from 2014 to 2015. Ambas- Carlos Jose Pareja Rios sador Pareja also served as Peru’s ambassador to Chile (2009-14); chief of state protocol in Lima (2006-09); ambassador to Switzerland (2003-05); ambassador to Spain (2000-02); and national director of the Directorate General of Sovereignty and Border Development, participating in peace negotiations with Ecuador, among other duties (1998-2000). In addition, he was chief of cabinet for the vice minister of foreign affairs (1997-98); ministercounselor in the Embassy of Peru in Santiago (1993-97); director for South American affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1990-93); and political counselor at the Peruvian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1984-90). Ambassador Pareja holds a bachelor’s of law degree from the Universidad de San Martin de Porres, a master’s in diplomacy and foreign relations from the Diplomatic Academy of Peru, a law studies degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a bachelor’s of arts from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

He speaks Spanish, English and intermediate French and is married to Consuelo Salinas and has two children, Juan (1981) and Jose (1985).

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served as vice president for international corporate affairs for an airline IT company and finally as vice president for aero-political affairs at Swiss International Air Lines, where he was responsible for regulatory matters as well as industry and political relations. In this capacity, he took on a leading role in the legal structuring of the business transfer from the defunct Swissair in 2001/2002 and then of the airline’s merger with Lufthansa in 2005. Upon completion of the merger in 2010, he was appointed to the position of ambassador to the EU and Belgium. His main responsibilities were the representation of his country toward the EU in institutions of the EEA and the Schengen Agreement.

Oct. 3: Day of German Unification

see hOLiDaYs • Page 46

Houssem Abbes assumed the position of press attaché on Aug. 15.

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Holidays cOntinueD • Page 45

GRENADA

HUNGARY

Oct. 25: Thanksgiving Day

Oct. 23: National Day

GUATEMALA

Oct. 2: Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday Oct. 2: Muharram

Oct. 20: Revolution Day

GUINEA Oct. 2: Republic Day

HONDURAS Oct. 3: Francisco Morazan Day Oct. 12: Columbus Day Oct. 21: Armed Forces Day

INDIA

INDONESIA Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

IRAN Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

IRELAND Oct. 31: Halloween

ISRAEL

KUWAIT

MAURITANIA

NIGERIA

Oct. 11-12: Yom Kippur Oct. 16-23: Sukkot Oct. 23-25: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

Oct. 2: Hijra New Year

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 1: National Day

LEBANON

MEXICO

OMAN

JAMAICA

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 12: Columbus Day

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

LESOTHO

MICRONESIA

PAKISTAN

the Republic

ST. VINCENT and THE GRENADINES Oct. 27: Independence Day

SENEGAL

Oct. 24: United Nations Day

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 18: National Heroes Day

Oct. 4: Independence Day

JAPAN

LIBYA

MONGOLIA

Oct. 1: Independence Day Oct. 24: United Nations Day

SLOVENIA

PANAMA Oct. 12: Columbus Day

Oct. 3: National Foundation Day

PERU

SPAIN

Oct. 8: Battle of Angamos

SYRIA

Oct. 10: Health and Sports Day (Taiku no hi)

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

JORDAN Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 11: Anti-Fascist Uprising Day

KAZAKHSTAN

MALAWI

Oct. 25: Republic Day

Oct. 12: Mother’s Day

MACEDONIA

Oct. 1: Veteran’s Day

MOROCCO Oct. 14: Islamic New Year

MOZAMBIQUE Oct. 4: Peace and Reconciliation Day

PALAU

KENYA

MALAYSIA

NEW ZEALAND

PORTUGAL

Oct. 20: Kenyatta Day

Oct. 2: Maal Hijrah

Oct. 24: Labor Day

Oct. 5: Proclamation of

46 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016

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UGANDA

Oct. 10: National Day

Oct. 9: Independence Day

TANZANIA Oct. 2: Mwalimu Nyerere Day

THAILAND

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 23: Chulalongkorn Day

URUGUAY

Oct. 31: Reformation Day

TUNISIA

VENEZUELA

SOUTH KOREA

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year

Oct. 12: Columbus Day

TURKEY

Oct. 2: First Day of Muharram Oct. 14: October Revolution Anniversary

Oct. 2: Tamxarit

Oct. 29: Republic Day

Oct. 12: National Day

TURKMENISTAN

Oct. 2: Islamic New Year Oct. 6: October War Remembrance

Oct. 6: Remembrance Day Oct. 27-28: Independence Day

Oct. 12: Columbus Day

YEMEN

ZAMBIA Oct. 24: Independence Day

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Cuba cOntinueD • Page 15

downtown main square, known as Parque Vidal, and Jewish tourists will also be intrigued by a small Holocaust memorial on the outskirts of town.

But for now, it’s ethnic travel rather than foreign tourism that is generating revenues for Cuba-bound airlines — notwithstanding objections from foes of the Obama administration’s new Cuba policy such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

“We’re thrilled with the service. It couldn’t have gone better,” Danielle Sandars, a JetBlue spokeswoman based in New York, told The Diplomat. “We’re really excited to launch service into Camagüey on Nov. 3 and Holguín on Nov. 10 from Fort Lauderdale, though we’re still waiting to hear from the Cuban government on the dates [for beginning service] to Havana.”

Sandars wouldn’t comment on passenger volume or profitability, but did explain why only 80 passengers were aboard my flight back to Fort Lauderdale on an aircraft with 150 seats. “On some of the flights, we’ve had weight restrictions, so we have to keep at a lower number of passengers. The ones going down have been pretty full.”

Since JetBlue paved the way, other rivals have jumped into the U.S.-Cuba market, including American Airlines, Spirit and Silver Airways.

Silver, which began flying to Santa Clara the day after JetBlue with introductory fares as low as $49 one-way from Fort Lauderdale, plans to begin service to nine Cuban cities this year.

Baker said up to 20 flights a day to Havana are approved and are simply awaiting the Cuban government’s go-ahead to begin. But first, Cuba wants to bring more hotel rooms online, since the capital city’s hotels are already oper-

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“The number of flights is impressive — 110 a week, if and when all the approved flights are in service,” he told us in an email. “That seems like a huge number of potential travelers.

However, I don’t think many of those planes will be full. The airlines are looking to get in the front door as an investment for the future.

There will obviously be some uptick in business opportunities in Santa Clara and other destinations served by the flights, but it will be a relatively marginal economic impact for the short term.”

For now, horse-drawn carriages and 1950sera Chevrolets, Fords, Buicks and Oldsmobiles are far more numerous on the streets of Santa Clara than they are in more modern Havana.

Yet thanks to its relative isolation, prices are also much lower here.

In fact, many shops and restaurants list prices in both “moneda nacional” or Cuban pesos — which are worth 24 to the dollar — and in the much more valuable “pesos convertibles” or CUCs, which are worth slightly more than a dollar each.

For example, at the Rincón del Sandwich restaurant just off Parque Vidal, you can enjoy a cheeseburger for 30 pesos ($1.25) or a hot dog for only 10 pesos (42 cents). Drinks are priced in convertible pesos: daiquiris or mojitos for 1.50 CUC, and a glass of sangria for 1 CUC. Lodging is cheap too. Airbnb lists 8,000 “casas particulares,” or private homes with rooms to rent, accounting for 90 percent of all rooms in the country, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Yet Santa Clara is considerably cheaper than Havana.

One week before my trip, I booked a perfectly acceptable room at Hostal La Caridad, a private home within walking distance of Parque Vidal. The cost: about $18 per night, or $54 for my three-night stay — exactly the same as Airbnb’s average rate of $54 a night for lodging in Havana.

Transportation is also quite inexpensive, as

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residents of santa clara congregate in the city’s Parque del carmen to access public WiFi, which lets cubans with smartphones or iPads communicate with their families overseas.

an elderly tobacco farmer enjoys his cigar as he waits for a ride along a lonely highway just outside camajauní, in the cuban province of Villa clara.

long as you don’t rent a car (which is not advisable anyway unless you speak Spanish and are prepared to share the road with horsedrawn carts, farm animals and other things not normally seen on the Beltway).

The day before my departure, I traveled from Santa Clara to the southern coastal city of Cienfuegos — a one-hour trip — in a red 1952 Hillman for the equivalent of $10.

It’s even cheaper if you’re willing to share the trip with strangers; a young man named Borroto, who hangs out at Santa Clara’s “Piquera de Autos” across from the main bus station, charges only 50 pesos (about $2) to

make that same trip, stuffing 12 passengers into his blue 1953 Chevy truck.

The morning of my flight back to Fort Lauderdale, I flagged down a beat-up 1978 Lada, whose driver took me to the picturesque town of Camajuaní and back for only $15. Arriving at the airport just in time for boarding, I found small kiosks selling Che Guevara T-shirts, revolutionary books, colorful postcards and WiFi access cards containing one hour of internet access for 4 CUC, or $5.

There’s also a duty-free shop selling cigars, perfumes and liquor, including bottles of Havana Club rum and J&B scotch whisky. Cigars range from the cheaper Romeo y Julieta to the top-shelf Cohiba, considered among the world’s finest cigars. I settled on a box of 10 premium Montecristo No. 4 cigars for 55 CUC. The good news is, under newly revised U.S. travel restrictions, Americans returning from Cuba may now bring up to $400 worth of goods acquired on the island for personal use, including a maximum of $100 in combined alcohol and tobacco products. That’s a far cry from the days when OFAC actually fined citizens up to $50,000 or even threatened them with jail time for having visited Cuba in violation of the law.

But until the travel ban, and the embargo itself, is actually abolished, don’t expect retail sales at Cuban airports — or anywhere else — to take off.

“Any American can legally just hop on a plane to Cuba and follow their own itinerary under the people-to-people category, and all they have to do is sign an affidavit, provided by the airline, that they are doing so. The majority of Americans simply aren’t aware of this,” said Baker. “It will be a gradual process of generating such awareness, but I don’t think we’ll see wholesale change until the travel restrictions are lifted entirely.” WD Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | OcTObEr 2016 | 47

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