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Diplomatic Connections September-October 2011
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D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 1
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D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 11
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDawn Parker
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Diplomatic Connections Business Editionis published bi-monthly.
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Copyright 2011 by Diplomatic ConnectionsAll rights reserved.
Cover photo credits: Center - Actor Michael Douglas at United Nations headquarters in New York, Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images; Duchess Catherine, Prince William and British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Chris Pizzello - Pool/Getty Images;SecGen Ban Ki-moon with Kim Sung-hwan in Seoul, Korea, UN Photo/Evan Schneider; Forest Whitaker, Francois Guillot/Getty Images; Michael Douglas with family, Lewis Whyld - WPA Pool/Getty Images; Senator Frank Lautenberg and Jessica Alba, Leigh Vogel/WireImage; Monique Coleman, United Nations Foundation;Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Duchess Catherine, Nicole Kidman and Prince William at BAFTA event, Matt Baron-Pool/Getty Images; Prince William and Duchess Catherine rowing dragon boat, Chris Jackson/Getty Images;Donald Driver,Leigh Vogel/WireImage for NEA; Eva Longoria, Paul Morigi/WireImage.
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D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 15
B y J a m e s A . W i n s h i p , P h . D .
Maps. They are as old as the human imagination
and the desire to find the way from one place to another. They are the product of travel, exploration, and discovery. They combine art, imagination, science, craft and are often the substance of legend and fable. Maps help us chronicle the past, illustrate the present, and project the future. They are capable of inspiring the deep-set emotions of nationalism and memory. Their boundary lines have been the cause of international disputes and triggered many wars. Maps have divided peoples and united nations. They present the perennial problem of representing a three-dimen-
16 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
sional world in a two-dimensional space. The tentative
solution to that problem, of course, is the globe. But have
you ever tried to place one of those in your pocket? And, is
a spherical globe really representative of the shape of the
earth? Well . . . no, not really. Science learned in the mid-
18th century that the earth is oblate; it bulges at the equator.
Another representational difficulty guaranteed to drive the
makers of spherical globes to distraction.
Maps bring back memories of those impossible to refold
correctly, octopus-like road maps that were free and available
everywhere in the full-service gas stations of yesteryear. No
glove box was complete without a handful of maps and few
households were without at least one shoe box full of the
things. Today, those beloved maps have been replaced by
computer downloads and the disembodied human voice —
offering the language, accent, and gender of your choice —
of the portable Global Positioning System (GPS), whether
handheld or mounted in the dashboard of our cars.
The skills of mapmaking have evolved with the technol-
ogy of travel and navigation. The development of the sextant,
which allowed navigators to measure the angle of the sun
or a celestial body to the horizon at any given point on earth
at any given time, allowed for the determination of latitude.
The later introduction of the marine chronometer in the 19th
century allowed for the reasonably accurate determination
of longitude. Together, these measurements provided the
theoretical designation of any position on earth, within the
bounds of human and instrument error.
If navigational needs drove the development of in-
creasingly accurate measures of location, it was the military
necessity of the battlefield that drove the increasingly sophis-
ticated development of mapmaking techniques and applied
technology to the presentation of detailed local data on a map.
Intimate knowledge of the geographic detail of a prospective
battlefield and its environs could provide a commander with
an important, sometimes decisive, military advantage. While
technological developments drove the science of mapmaking,
their practical application often lagged behind the rough and
ready needs of military commanders faced with the practical
realities of locating the enemy and moving substantial numbers
of troops, unwieldy weaponry, and large amounts of supplies.
This potential advantage of detailed knowledge of the
battlefield was apparent to both the Union and the Confeder-
ate militaries during the American Civil War. Since the great
Maps If navigational needs drove the development of increasingly accurate measures of
location, it was the military necessity of the battlefield that drove the increasingly sophisticated development of map-making techniques and applied technology to the presentation of detailed local data on a map.
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 17
battles of the Civil War largely took place in the South,
with the notable exception of the battle of Gettysburg,
local knowledge tended to favor the Confederate forces.
Interestingly, top students at the United States Military
Academy at West Point tended to join either the Army Corps
of Engineers, the builders, or the Corps of Topographical
Engineers, the mappers. Assignment to the Corps of
Topographical Engineers, or “topogs” as they were known,
was especially valued because they got to employ some of
the very latest scientific equipment. But, topographical
engineers were soldiers as well. Captain George G. Meade,
for whom Fort Meade in Maryland is named, was a topo-
graphical engineer responsible for mapping the Great Lakes.
Subsequently, he was promoted to Major General and put
in charge of the Union Army just one week before facing
General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. While
historians continue competing assessments of Gettysburg to
this day, it is eminently clear that Meade used the topography
of the battlefield to his defensive advantage and dealt Lee’s
forces a significant defeat.
What the Civil War demonstrated most effectively,
however, was that state-of-the-art technology was no
substitute for maps incorporating critical military intel-
ligence in a way that would allow commanders to visualize
the battlefield and exploit terrain effectively. The Civil War
saw the first battlefield use of the plane table — a flat level
surface used for map drawing that would allow for more ac-
curate measures of distance and elevation — under wartime
conditions. Unfortunately, use of the plane table exposed the
topographic engineers to enemy fire and proved too danger-
ous to be effective, even when adapted for use on horseback.
Instead, what the military commanders needed was “prac-
ticable” geographic intelligence. It was vitally important to
know where streams could be forded, for example, but it was
of even greater importance to know the capabilities of the
ford. Troops, for instance, could ford a stream through 4-5
feet of water. Wagons, which carried the critical supplies on
which an army lived and fought, could handle a depth of no
more than 2.5 feet. And, a ford that might accommodate a
small handful of wagons might simply disintegrate under the
impact of dozens of wagons and heavy artillery pieces.
Woods and forests also presented important tactical
advantages and sometimes insurmountable challenges.
Control of a Civil War army depended on line of sight,
18 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
and forests represented obstructions that no general could
overcome. “Topogs” could scout forest lands, map locations,
chart streams, and assess the density of trees and under-
brush, all crucial characteristics for battlefield commanders to
know. Typically, a Civil War topographical engineer’s toolkit
would include a pocket-sized sketchbook, a soft lead pencil
secured by string so as not to be dropped and lost while on
horseback, a ruler, a prismatic compass used for determining
bearings of specific roads or land features, and a pocket an-
eroid barometer used to determine elevations. Map drawing
implements included a protractor, compasses, a ruler, paper,
drawing pens, and India ink. Such tools were basic but effec-
tive in the hands of a trained topog.
In a technological advance that provided only marginal
results, the Civil War Corps of Topographical Engineers experi-
mented with hydrogen-filled balloons for aerial reconnaissance
and battlefield mapping. Foreshadowing the direction military
aviation would move in the 20th century, the balloons were
serviced and launched from converted coal barges equipped
with hydrogen generators, which were termed “aerostat carri-
ers” — precursors of the modern day aircraft carriers that are
at the core of the projection of naval airpower. Union officers
generally felt that although the balloons increased the distance
from which the battlefield could be overlooked, they were so
unsteady as to make accurate measurements difficult. After the
war, however, Confederate generals indicated that avoiding the
observation balloons above the battlefield forced a good deal of
roundabout troop movement.
The latter part of the 19th century saw the formation of
the U.S. Geological Survey established for “classification of
the public lands, and examination of the geological structure,
mineral resources, and products of the national domain.”
The goal was initially to map the public lands of the West and
their potential mineral wealth with an eye toward settlement
and the development of resources. To this day, the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey continues to provide among the most detailed
and accurate maps of the United States, primarily in digital
form rather than in print. This makes it easier to revise and
update the maps as more detailed data become available.
Keeping these critical maps up-to-date and accurate using
the most advanced mapping techniques, however, remains an
underfunded and underappreciated task.
World War I began the marriage of photography with
the military use of the airplane to develop aerial mapping
techniques, an emerging science that would become known
as “photogrammetry.” Aerial photography, in its early stages
was used primarily to provide basic battlefield intelligence
such as the location and size of troop and artillery formations
as well as the locations of key physical features such as roads,
rivers, and forests. World War II, however, benefitted from
increasingly sophisticated techniques developed between the
two World Wars and refined under the battlefield conditions
of World War II. Aircraft-mounted cameras with increasingly
high resolution now took strips of overlapping photos that
could be projected in such a way as to produce a three-
dimensional map of the area being photographed. Human
analysts could examine these composite photos for detailed
intelligence gathering, and mechanical analog plotters could
reconstruct the three-dimensional aerial geometry in the form
of contour maps.
The Cold War brought continuing increases in photo-
graphic resolution and high altitude aerial photography that
allowed reconnaissance and mapping of the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe as well as other potential battlefields. Subse-
quently, the introduction of reconnaissance satellites allowed
for even more sophisticated photographic techniques, though
The Cold War brought continuing increases in
photographic resolution and high altitude
aerial photography that allowed
reconnaissance and mapping of
potential battlefields.
19
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the continued use of film cartridges required the develop-
ment of mid-air retrieval techniques to snatch film ejected
from satellites in mid-air. Despite the Cold War mapping ad-
vances, when the United States entered the Vietnam War its
forces were overly dependent on outdated French maps from
the 1950s Indochina War and the earlier French colonial
period. The Army Map Service (AMS) developed pictomaps
using photographic images that were sufficient for infantry
use and identification of landmarks but were not sufficient to
permit accurate artillery control.
The post-Vietnam years brought significant advances
in aerial photography and photogrammetric techniques that
developed mathematical formulas to reconstruct aerial geom-
etry, and the advent of computers made it possible to move
beyond the Rube Goldberg contraptions that used photo-
graphs to draw analog maps to the use of smaller analytical
plotters. That same technology made it possible to develop
a more complex system of aerial photography called simulta-
neous block aerotriangulation that permitted multiple flight
lines of photographs to be tied together in ways that allowed
the construction of highly-detailed maps.
The greatest breakthroughs have come in the 1990s and
afterwards with the introduction of digital imaging technol-
ogy that allows for real-time transmission of image data from
airplanes as well as satellites passing over various points on
earth. New technologies such as LiDAR (Light Detection and
Ranging), which uses light impulses in the form of infra-red
laser beams, and IFSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture
Radar), which uses two phased sets of radio wave impulses to
measure elevation and map terrain, have made it possible to
overcome some of the traditional limitations of aerial pho-
tography. Both systems can operate in darkness. Airborne
LiDAR systems emit hundreds of thousands of laser pulses
per second, creating LiDAR “point clouds” of data that map
the tops of trees, buildings, as well as the bare-earth ter-
rain beneath the vegetation if laser pulses can pass through
or between the trees. LiDAR is now the leading technology
for mapping 3-D topographic surfaces. IFSAR has almost
non-existent weather restrictions and has strong cloud- and
weather-penetrating capabilities.
What was initially developed as the U.S. Army’s Terrain
Information Extraction System (TIES) has been commercially
developed by BAE Systems as “Socet Set®,” digital mapping
software that is used for precision photogrammetry and geo-
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 21
spatial analysis. The system is able to handle large amounts of
data from various image sources and provides a sophisticated
point-matching formula that can correlate literally millions of
points to tie thousands of images together with their real-world
locations. Socet Set® similarly performs lidargrammetry —
processing billions of 3-D elevation points from LiDAR data.
The resulting processes from photogrammetry and lidargram-
metry create high-resolution digital terrain and surface models,
image maps called orthophotos, 3-D visualizations, and Geo-
graphic Information System (GIS) databases.
The military applications of these evolving technologies
are many, varied, and often classified. Suffice it to say, howev-
er, that enhanced geospatial information and imaging technol-
ogies have improved mission planning and mission rehearsal
capabilities and have made possible remarkably detailed and
sophisticated computer simulations of potential battlefields.
Nowhere were these new technologies more visible than
in the First Iraq War (1990-91). The Army’s Engineer Topo-
graphic Laboratories (ETL) were responsible for developing
a “Country Profile Program” that provided commanders with
the most detailed and accurate maps of the potential battle-
field ever created, including critical infrastructure, rivers,
military sites, detailed street plans indicating key facilities,
and the locations of key resources. ETL was also responsible
for developing the guidance systems employed in Cruise
Missile technology, previously untried in combat. Terrain
Contour Matching (TERCOM) used elevation data to guide
the cruise missile’s flight path, and digital image correlation
provided terminal guidance that allowed the missile to match
prepared images of its intended target with what it was seeing
on the ground. ETL also developed a system of virtually real-
time mapping of the battlefield that would allow geospatial
intelligence to be downloaded and transformed into maps
that could be electronically delivered to commanders in
the field within a few hours. Remote imaging allowed the
detailed mapping of mine fields and the “fire trenches” which
Iraqi forces had engineered as defensive, delaying tactics
against any American-led coalition assault. Field operational
engineers provided on-site sand testing to determine where
heavy tanks and artillery could effectively operate, and GPS
equipment was used for the first time for initialization of
artillery positioning and azimuth determining systems.
While the GPS devices that have become so much a
part of our traveling lives represent one of the most obvious
spin-offs of the development of military mapping technology,
the civilian uses of the LiDAR and IFSAR elevation mapping
techniques are myriad. The new systems are critical to the
development of environmentally-conscious planning, not
only by mapping land contours but by measuring such
things as rainfall penetration and the thickness of under-
brush. A project currently underway in Nepal with the
cooperation of the Nepali and Finnish governments uses
LiDAR technology to produce three-dimensional maps of
the forest that can be used to calculate the amount of carbon
stored in large areas of forest. This will allow Nepal to par-
ticipate in international carbon-trading schemes designed to
allow high carbon producing countries to pay poor countries
with lots of forest area to refrain from cutting down trees
in exchange for carbon credits.
The new systems enhance land and resource management
22 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
Dr. David Maune studies the ups and downs of life. He
is not a psychiatrist, a moral philosopher, or a public
opinion pollster; he is a cartographer — a map maker —
or, more, specifically, a topographer — an engineer who
specializes in measuring elevation. Without Dr. Maune’s
assistance, this article would not have been possible. It grew
out of a professional presentation he made to an audience
of engineers exploring “Topographic Mapping: From the Civil
War to the Present.” Dr. Maune was kind enough to spend
hours with me sharing his experiences during his 30-year
military career and his now 20-year civilian engineering
career with Dewberry, a Virginia-based consulting firm.
Keep your eyes open as you drive Route 50 through the
Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, and you might spot Dr.
Maune. His Virginia license plate succinctly summarizes a
good bit of his professional life story. “MAP-ER” it reads in
bold blue letters against a white background. To the left the
plate is graced with an image of the Purple Heart Medal giv-
en to military personnel wounded in combat, and the words
“Combat Wounded” are emblazoned in red across the bottom
edge of the plate. Dr. Maune is a veteran of the Vietnam War,
of the extended Cold War, and of the First Iraq War . . . and he
is one of the world’s leading experts on Digital Elevation Mea-
surement. He really did edit the book on it, “Digital Elevation
Model Technologies and Applications: The DEM User’s Manual”
published by the American Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing, now in its second edition.
David Maune retired from the United States Army Corps of
Engineers as a full colonel in 1991 after a career as the Army’s
leading specialist in topographic engineering. He served with
the Army Corps of Engineers in Vietnam, Germany, England,
and the U.S. His career took him on to command of the 652nd
Engineer Battalion (Topographic), service as Inspector General
of the Defense Mapping Agency — now the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency, service as Director of the Defense Mapping
School, and finally service as Commander and Director of the
U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories (ETL) and the
U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC).
A mechanical engineering graduate of the Missouri
University of Science and Technology, David Maune joined
the Army Corps of Engineers immediately after graduation.
Ironically, it would be Vietnam that led directly to his graduate
Dewberry
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 23
techniques and make possible precision farm-
ing designed to get the most production from a
given combination of land, topography, seeds,
water, and fertilizer. Navigational safety can be
dramatically improved at sea and in the air. Snow
packs and snow melt can be mapped to more
accurately predict flooding and rises in sea level.
Urban and regional planning can make use of
these technologies to examine building footprints
and their interaction with the landscape, and vir-
tual cities can be created to assess their impact on
the patterns of life. Epidemiologists can examine
standing water patterns and terrain to predict the
spread of insect and water-borne disease. The
new imaging techniques can be used in a variety
of ways in the classroom not only to project maps
but to help students better understand the earth
and its ecosystems.
Maps.They are as old as time and
travel. And they are as new
as the most innovative technologies available.
No longer do we have to unfold or unroll them;
they’re as close as the nearest cell phone or
handheld computing device. One thing never
changes, however. Maps are the projections
of the human imagination showing us the
details of the landscape, the battlefield, a city,
a country . . . a picture of where we are not . . .
but where we might be. n
studies in mapping and topography. There, a Chinese-made hand
grenade, with a normal kill radius of 25-feet, landed just in front
of him. He managed to get just 8-feet away when the grenade
exploded. He survived. Several surgeries and much physical
therapy later, the Army suggested that they would send him to
graduate school with one assignment: learn everything he could
about how to map the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe without the
knowledge of their governments. He emerged from The Ohio State
University with a Ph.D. in Geodetic Science and Photogrammetry.
Dr. Maune is a transformer. Trained as a topographer, he
spent his military career demonstrating the importance of maps
and employing the latest technologies to transform field data into
geospatial intelligence. After retiring from the military, he took
his skills into the civilian sector where he has been a leader in the
field application of digital imaging technologies to provide geo-
spatial information critical for a wide variety of federal and state
government agencies. And more than that, he has encouraged the
training and development of a whole new generation of “topogs”
who meld the historic skills of the map maker with the extraordi-
nary information gathering capabilities of new digital technologies
. . . to reach new heights (and depths). n
Dave Maune has been mapping the earth’s topography, worldwide, since 1963.
24 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (3rd L) and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2nd L) stand beside the statue of late US President Ronald Reagan at the Freedom Square of Budapest, close to the US Embassy building, on June 29, 2011, during the unveiling ceremony of the 180 kilograms and 2.18 meter tall bronze statue showing Reagan to mark the 100th anniversary of the late president. Ronald Reagan never visited Hungary, but his efforts to end communism have endeared him to many Hungarians.
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BUDAPEST: California Democrat Tom Lantos first entered the U.s. Congress in 1981, the same year Republican Ronald Reagan took over
the White House. Politically, that was about all the two politicians had in common. Yet in July both men were honored in Budapest on two successive days in events that brought together a former and current U.s. secretary of state and
26 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
a passel of members of Congress from both sides of the House.
In the first event, Condoleezza Rice joined Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban to unveil a 7 foot 3 inch bronze
statue of Reagan, one of a series of celebrations across Europe
to mark the centenary of his birth.
The president is captured striding purposefully across
Szabadsag (Freedom) Square in the direction of a nearby
memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during the ouster of the
Nazis from Hungary in the closing phases of World War II.
The obelisk topped by a gilt star
is an emotional eyesore to most
Hungarians, but can´t be moved to
a more remote location because of
an agreement with Moscow.
The Hungarians, like
other Eastern Europeans,
regard Reagan´s hard
line anti-communist
policy as pivotal in
the collapse of the
Soviet empire in
1989. At the
unveiling,
Prime Minister Orban praised Reagan for his role in enabling
Hungary to regain its sovereignty and the subsequent
withdrawal of Soviet troops. So the symbolism of the 40th
president of the United States starting down the obslisk from
a hundred paces was not lost.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) headed
the list of members of the U.S. Congress that included —
among others — Republican Representatives Lynn
Westmoreland (California), Vern Buchanan (Florida), and
Ed Whitfield (Kentucky); and Democratic Representatives
Karen Bass and Loretta Sanchez (California), and North
Carolina´s David Price.
Some of the distinguished American visitors also
attended Reagan commemorative events in Prague and
Krakow, Poland, home for forty years of Pope John Paul II, a
kindred spirit to Ronald Reagan in combating communism.
And by July 3, everyone had converged on London where
another statue to Reagan was unveiled in Grosvenor Square,
site of the U.S. Embassy.
Hungary´s domed Parliament building on the banks of
the Danube River in Budapest was the venue of the second
event, the inauguration of the Lantos Institute, named after
the California Democrat.
Reagan was honored without ever having set foot in
Budapest. But Lantos was a son of Hungary. He was born to
a Hungarian-Jewish family in Budapest in 1928 and survived
Karoly Grosz (L), the then-Hungarian General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP), listens to the then-US President Ronald Reagan’s (C) speech during a White House departure ceremony in
Washington on July 27, 1988. Reagan told the reporters and guests that the United States was impressed with Grosz’s openness to new ideas and were encouraged by his recognition that economic reforms cannot succeed
unless they are accompanied by political reforms in Hungary.
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the Nazi occupation of Hungary before migrating to the United
States. He became the only Holocaust survivor to enter the
U.S. Congress, where he served until his death in 2008, at the
age of 80. Throughout his life, he maintained close relations
with his homeland and became known in the House for
his work on human rights. He founded the Human Rights
Commission in the U.S. Congress that still bears his name.
Appropriately, the Lantos Institute — in the words of
Katrina Lantos Swett, the late congressman´s daughter who
heads the California-based Lantos Foundation,
its joint sponsor with Hungary — ¨represents an
important commitment on the part of the Hungar-
ian government to advance human rights, protect
minority rights, promote tolerance and strengthen
trans-Atlantic relations.”
A portrait of Lantos holding his pet dog is
hung in the gilt-encrusted, Gothic Revival parliament cham-
ber. For the Hungarian government, the celebrations had a
wide significance. Together, the two events were projected
as an expression of Hungary´s involvement in the Atlantic
Alliance. “The reason we are gathered together is to further
strengthen the alliance between the United States of America
and Hungary [...] and to celebrate a new rampart of this
alliance,” declared Prime Minister Orban.
Making a rare appearance together were Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.
They sat on the velvet-covered seats normally occupied by
the government, with Prime Minister Orban between
them. Both women paid tribute to the late congressman’s
commitment to human rights. Hillary Clinton called him “the
physical and moral embodiment of the values that we share
and the commitment to freedom that means so much to the
American and Hungarian people.”
But the secretary used the occasion to make a wide-
ranging speech about human rights, voicing her concern
about those countries “trumpeting national economic growth
over freedom and human rights” — a thinly veiled reference
to China — and specifically referring to the poor human
rights record of Belarus and the regime of Moammar Gaddafi
in Libya. Clinton also encouraged countries that had expe-
rience in making the transition from repressive regimes to
more liberal governments in helping Arab countries in taking
their first step towards democracy.
At a reception for the American guests in the parlia-
ment’s long gallery, an orchestra of strings and that uniquely
Hungarian instrument, the zither, played musical selections.
Including — inevitably — the Harry Lime theme from the
1950s movie “The Third Man” which introduced the zither
to a global public. n
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) and former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice (L) attend a ceremony to unveil a statue of former US president Ronald Reagan at the Freedom Square in downtown Budapest on June 29, 2011. The 40th president of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989, Reagan is celebrated in Hungary for helping to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union and of communism in Eastern Europe. The 2.2-metre (7.2-foot) high bronze statue by Hungarian sculptor Istvan Mate, erected by the Hungarian Ronald Reagan Memorial Committee, marked the 100th anniversary this year of the US president’s birth and has been set close to the US embassy.
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30 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
Michael Douglas,“Messenger of Peace” for the United NationsBattles theCancer of Nuclear Weapons
Actor Michael Douglas stunned the movie-going public late last year when he announced that
he would undergo radiation treatments and chemotherapy for throat cancer, a battle that he has now apparently won. His willingness to battle cancer to a standstill, however, should have come as no surprise. Douglas has been battling another global scourge — the continuing presence and proliferation of nuclear weapons — for the last 13 years, ever since he was named a United Nations “Messenger for Peace” by then secretary General Kofi Annan. Douglas is deeply committed to the cause of global disarmament and has spoken out repeatedly on the importance of nuclear nonprolif-eration, limiting the global trade in small arms and light weapons, and the plight of child soldiers forced into various conflicts around the world. Michael Douglas is a two-time Academy
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Actor Michael Douglas attends the inauguration of a new art installation of civil society petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the United Nations headquarters in New York, March 24, 2011. The art installation, in support of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, will be part of the UN General Assembly permanent exhibition, displaying two plexiglass columns encasing over one million petitions calling for a total abolition of nuclear weapons.
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Douglas is deeply committed to the cause of global disarmament and has spoken out repeatedly on the importance of nuclear nonproliferation, limiting the global trade in small arms and light weapons, and the plight of child soldiers forced into various conflicts around the world.....................
Michael Douglas (second from right), UN Messenger of Peace, speaks during the inauguration ceremony of a new installation of civil society petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Also present is Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
A one-million signature petition from cities around the world demanding the abolition of nuclear weapons went on exhibition at United Nations Headquarters in New York in a ceremony attended by Japanese survivors of the first and only use of the devastating bombs. Organized by Mayors for Peace, which was founded in 1982 by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities laid waste by atomic bombs in 1945, and now includes 4,540 cities in 150 countries, the exhibition underscores the goal of transcending national borders to fight for nuclear disarmament in what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called a “landmark occasion” that helps to build international momentum.
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Douglas is deeply committed to the cause of global disarmament and has spoken out repeatedly on the importance of nuclear nonproliferation, limiting the global trade in small arms and light weapons, and the plight of child soldiers forced into various conflicts around the world.....................
Award-winner receiving a “Best Picture” Oscar for his produc-
tion of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and later the
Oscar for “Best Actor” for his role as the ruthless banker Gordon
Gekko, known for his now famous aphorism “Greed is good,” in
“Wall Street” (1987). But it was his involvement in the produc-
tion of the 1979 film “The China Syndrome” that drew Douglas
into the nuclear debate. As he told a British audience in 2000,
“I was first confronted with
nuclear issues when I was
involved in the making
of the film “The China
Syndrome.” Three weeks
after the movie opened, the
Three Mile Island nuclear
disaster occurred. I was
deeply concerned when
nuclear physicists told me
that 135 out of 160 fail-safe
steps had failed, almost
exactly as had happened in
the film. That started me
on this cause.”
Douglas went on to
explain to that same Brit-
ish audience that, “It is
increasingly likely that you and I will wake up one morning
to find that a sub-state group with a grievance is threaten-
ing a major Western city with a ‘suitcase’ nuclear bomb. It is
considered by specialists to be only a matter of time before
this happens. We have no defense whatsoever against it.
The only significant way we can reduce this risk is to put
materials to make nuclear weapons under lock and key.
That is possible, but the nuclear weapons nations have to do
it.” That statement was made 11 years ago, and in that time
Michael Douglas has repeatedly spoken out at the United
Nations and around the world for turning the “dream” of
nuclear disarmament into a practical, functioning reality.
The United Nations Messengers for Peace program
brings together distinguished individuals from the fields of
art, literature, music, and sports who accept the mission of
focusing worldwide attention on the work of the United Na-
tions. Secretary General Kofi Annan (1997-2006) spelled out
his vision for the program in remarks before two conferences
on “Celebrity Advocacy for the United Nations.” Celebrities,
he believed could advance the work of the United Nations in
two ways: first, by encouraging reluctant governments to take
more seriously the rhetori-
cal pledges they so readily
made in UN-sponsored
international conferences;
and second, by using their
global star status to per-
suade public opinion that
the UN’s goals of idealism
and optimism could make
a real difference in inter-
national diplomacy, where
the cynicism of political
realism and worst case
scenarios often reigned.
While attending a United
Nations Disarmament
Conference in New York in
2010, Michael Douglas was
asked point blank about what impact even an award-winning
actor and producer could have on an issue so big and seem-
ingly intractable as global disarmament. He offered a modest
but pointed rationale. “As somebody who’s in the movies,
people know you around the world. And, there’s a number
of world leaders who spend their time watching movies, so
you sometimes have easier access to them than being a gov-
ernment official. So I try to take advantage of that to speak
about my enthusiasm on the issue of disarmament.”
And speak out he does. In 2009, at a United Nations
Conference dealing with the proposed Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty, which has been signed by 182 states and ratified by
154 but still lacks the critical nuclear state (Annex 2) ratifica-
tions necessary to bring the treaty into force, Douglas made a
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The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Section of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) delivers 40,000 liters of water to Tora village, approximately 50 km north of El Fasher, North Darfur. The water is used to make bricks for the construction of a village school which will house 30 former child soldiers.
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pointed and impassioned case for support of the treaty. “The
vast majority of people the world over intuitively abhor the
exploding of nuclear weapons in our precious earth and fear
the consequences of the use of these weapons by accident or
by mad design upon our cities. Now that leaders have made
clear their understanding of the risks and stated forcefully the
value of eliminating them we must rally together to make their
aspirations a reality. Please put the test ban high on our agen-
das. It is a necessary step to the future we all know is best.”
More recently, Michael Douglas spoke at the opening of
a special exhibition “Cities Are Not Targets” (CANT) which
will become part of the permanent disarmament display
in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Included as
part of the exhibition is a petition, assembled by Mayors for
Peace, with over one million signatures from people all over
the world. “Mayors for Peace” was founded in 1982 by the
mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, the only two cities
to have known the direct impact of atomic bombs dropped
in warfare at the end of World War II. The organization
now counts more than 4,540 cities in 150 countries as active
members dedicated to the total abolition of nuclear weapons.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon observed
that this was the first exhibit in the permanent disarmament
display “which emphasizes the importance of our partnership
with a global non-governmental organization.”
Drawing a parallel between the current post-earthquake
nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power generating
station and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy 66 years
ago, Douglas noted that despite “a lifetime of scars for those
who survived the blasts, the Japanese people have a history
“The vast majority of people the world over intuitively abhor the exploding of nuclear weapons in our precious earth and fear the consequences of the use of these we apons by accident or by mad design upon our cities...Please put the test ban high on our agendas. It is a necessary step to the future we all know is best.”
of rebuilding their country from both natural and man-made
disasters.” “The people who signed these petitions,” he con-
tinued, “are sending a clear and unambiguous message that
cities do not accept being held hostage by nuclear weapons.”
Though the United Nations has represented a major
commitment for Michael Douglas, his interests and involve-
ments do not end there. He is a member of the Board of
Directors of “Ploughshares Fund,” which “works to build a
safe, secure, nuclear weapons-free world by developing and
investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the
world’s nuclear stockpiles and to promote stability in regions
of conflict.” In addition, Douglas is an active supporter of
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and a board mem-
ber of Humanistic Robotics, which grew out of the Geneva
International Center for Humanitarian Demining and devel-
ops technologies for landmine clearance and the defeat of
pressure-sensitive improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He
is the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, including
the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for outstanding
excellence in the field of culture for using his art to reach out
to other cultures.
Michael Douglas is married to the actress Catherine
Zeta-Jones, who is not only at his side for his UN Ambas-
sadorial duties but extends his work with a focus of her own
on international children’s issues, supporting the work of the
International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the
Worldwide Orphans Fund, and Cinema for Peace. Douglas is
following in the footsteps of his father, award-winning actor
Kirk Douglas, who himself has twice served as a United Na-
tions Goodwill Ambassador. n
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“The vast majority of people the world over intuitively abhor the exploding of nuclear weapons in our precious earth and fear the consequences of the use of these we apons by accident or by mad design upon our cities...Please put the test ban high on our agendas. It is a necessary step to the future we all know is best.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Michael Douglas, UN Messenger of Peace, at UN Headquarters in New York.
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Opposite Page: Michael Douglas (left), UN Messenger of Peace, and Joseph Deiss, President of the 65th session of
the General Assembly, are pictured during the inauguration ceremony of a new installation of civil society petitions calling
for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Left: United Nations Headquarters, Mr. Kirk Douglas, the well-known motion picture actor, talks with Miss Otillie Hayes,
then-UN Secretariat member, at the Information Desk in the Main Lobby of the Secretariat Building on January 11, 1952.
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Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (R) arrives with her husband,
actor Michael Douglas and their children Dylan and Carys
Douglas, to attend a Royal Investiture at Buckingham
Palace on February 24, 2011, in London, England. The
41-year-old Swansea-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones,
who became an Oscar-winning Hollywood star, was presented with a CBE by Prince Charles,
Prince of Wales, in honor of services to the film industry
and to charity.
38 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
Actress and activist Eva Longoria speaks on Capitol Hill during the Farm Worker Help Bill press conference at the House Triangle on June 16, 2011, in Washington, DC.
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The fictional Wisteria Lane of “Desperate Housewives” may have brought Eva Longoria fame
and recognition, but it is in Washington, DC, where she has found her voice. Best known for her character Gabrielle Solis, the beautiful scheming housewife whose life adventures add spice to the comedy/soap opera’s convoluted story lines, Longoria has become a frequent visitor on Capitol Hill
and an outspoken advocate for the rights of Latina woman and
children. Longoria is Tejano, an American of Spanish and Mexican descent whose family has resided in Texas
since before the formation of the United States. Her ancestors migrated to what
Helping Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard to Spotlight Plight of Latino Children Picking the Nation’s Produce
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Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, (D-CA), right, and actress Eva Longoria hold a news conference at the House Triangle to introduce the Farm Worker Help Bill on Thursday, June 16, 2011.
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was then New Spain in 1603 and moved North toward what
would become the modern U.S.-Mexico border. Though her
ancestors had received a sizeable land grant from the King of
Spain in the eighteenth century, Longoria grew up with her
parents on a hard-scrabble “ranch” in the land between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande rivers. She frequently describes
herself as “Texican” or “Tex-Mex,” and she has never strayed
far from her Hispanic roots despite her theatrical success.
Building on her personal success, Longoria has poured
time and energy into a variety of humanitarian causes, many of
them dedicated to protecting the rights and health of children.
“My philanthropic drive definitely comes from my mother. My
Latino pride — my Mexican-American pride — comes from
my father,” she adds, “who always taught me to never forget
where you came from, and I never do. There are a lot of privi-
leges that I have and so many people fought before me so that
I could have them. So I want to continue their fight to make a
better life for those who want it and earn it and need it.”
In 2006, she founded “Eva’s Heroes,” which helps
developmentally-disabled children and is dedicated to her
sister Lisa, who is herself developmentally disabled.
Longoria also serves as the national spokesperson for PADRES
Contra El Cancér — Parents Against Cancer — a non-profit
organization committed to helping Latino children and their
families as they cope with the expensive and sometimes
debilitating range of cancer treatments their children must
undergo. As the only such Latino program in the country,
PADRES focuses on the needs of the entire family by
providing educational, financial, and language services.
Early this summer, Eva Longoria joined Representative
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) on Capitol Hill to announce
the reintroduction of “The Children’s Act for Responsible
Employment” (CARE, HR 2234), which would require limited
working hours and increased protections for children work-
ing in agricultural fields in the United States. “Agriculture,”
Congresswoman Roybal-Allard noted, “is the only industry
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“There are a lot of privileges that I have and so many people fought before me so that I could have them. So I want to continue their fight
to make a better life for those who want it and earn it and need it.”
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governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to
work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours
they spend in the fields outside of the school day.” There
are an estimated 400,000 children who work as migrant
farm laborers, traveling across thousands of miles with their
families to pick crops in southern Texas, northern Michigan,
and northern Florida all the while dealing with scorching
heat, pesticide residues, the emotional burden of helping
their families through tough economic times, separation from
friends and familiar places, and the constant disruption of
their school lives as they follow the crops from place to place.
Actress Eva Longoria became Executive Producer Eva
Longoria, working with director U. Roberto Romano and
“Shine Global” to create a documentary film “The Harvest/
La Cosecha” that examines the hardship-filled lives of child
migrant laborers. Shine Global is a non-profit film produc-
tion company dedicated to “ending the abuse of children
worldwide [by making] theatrically cinematic films that raise
awareness, promote action and inspire political change. Be-
yond providing an emotional film experience, however, [our
goal is] to empower children to tell their stories in a manner
that reveals hope within horror.”
The film, which was screened on Capitol Hill, the same
day the announcement of the proposed CARE Act legislation
was made, profiles three child workers — Zulema Lopez
(12), Perla Sanchez (14), and Victor Huapilla (16) — as they
work through the 2009 harvest. Zulema’s earliest memo-
ries are of her mother teaching her how to pick and clean
strawberries. After attending eight schools in eight years, she’s
worried she may not even make it into, much less through,
high school. Asked about her dreams, Zulema simply says
she doesn’t have time for them. Perla sees one advantage
to traveling with her family to pick crops across the United
States. Migrating on the harvest provides some insulation
from the temptations of drugs and gangs that are inherent
in being a teenage Latina with limited resources. She has
a dream of becoming a lawyer so that she can help other
migrant families struggling to make ends meet. Victor lives
in Florida and is on the path to full citizenship. He struggles
to balance his time between harvesting and going to school,
but he is glad that his younger sisters have been spared the
ordeal of picking up to 1,5oo pounds of tomatoes a day. Still,
the expenses of bringing his two older sisters to the United
States legally have virtually bankrupted the family, making it
impossible for them to migrate for work.
What emerges is a vicious cycle of back-breaking work
“Agriculture,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard noted, “is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of
hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day.”
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these people.” Perhaps that is Longoria’s greatest gift . . .
feeling invested in people. Her investment is document-
ed by her current enrollment in a master’s program in
Chicano Studies and Political Science at Cal State Univer-
sity – Northridge. She explains this academic side of her
life by noting, “I really wanted a better, more authentic
understanding of what my community has gone through
so that I can help create change.”
Among her many endeavors is a cookbook, “Eva’s
Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends,”
which she describes as “a memoir of my life told through
food.” It is based on her family experience of weddings
over the years where each bride received a cookbook
filled with favorite recipes from various family members.
And, it’s dedicated to her Aunt Elsa who taught everyone
in the family how to cook and all the while stretching the
boundaries of recipes. “I’m a cook not a chef,” Longoria
observes and quickly adds that she cooks to taste and to
please family and friends . . . that makes writing formal
recipes hard. “I treasure cooking and I value it. I love
that it is always centered around family.”
What’s true for cooking is equally true of Longoria’s
political and social involvement. It seems always to be
centered around family. Aunt Elsa would be proud. n
in the fields and migrations with school sandwiched in the
moments of available time and dwindling energy. Congress-
woman Roybal-Allard summarized the dilemma of these
child field workers. “Tragically, unable to keep up with the
competing demands of long work hours in the fields and
school, a recent report found that child farmworkers drop
out of school at four times the national dropout rate — slam-
ming the door shut on the very pathway that could one day
help them escape a lifetime of unrelenting work harvesting
our crops. I simply do not believe that our child labor laws
reflect how we as Americans value our children.”
“The difference Eva Longoria has made to this bill is
huge,” Roybal-Allard said. “Before Eva, we would hold press
conferences for this bill, but they were nothing like this.”
She goes on to credit Longoria with helping to increase the
number of co-sponsors who have signed on to the legislation
since it was first introduced in 2007. “There are so many
issues vying for our time in D.C. that migrant child labor can
often get lost,” the Congresswoman noted, “so you need to
have someone like Eva – someone of her stature – to really
elevate the energy and excitement.”
In Eva Longoria’s words, “With this documentary, we
took the issue of farm workers in America and humanized it
by giving it a face, and a need, and you really feel invested in
“...we took the issue of farm workers in America and humanized it by giving it a face, and a need,
and you really feel invested in these people.”
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Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the
Duchess of Cambridge, arrive on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during Canada Day celebrations on the second
day of their nine-day tour of Canada on July 1, 2011.
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n the streets of London this summer, the romance
had all but vanished. Gone were the carriages, cam-
eras, and cast of celebrities that characterized the
spring wedding between Catherine Middleton and Prince
William. In their wake returned honking cabs, swarming
tourists, and disgruntled media barons.
An ocean away, however, a second act to the love story
was taking shape. This time, it was not simply between a
prince and his bride, but between two newlyweds and a
nation.
On June 30th, William and his new wife Catherine,
as she prefers to be called, arrived in Canada for their
first official overseas tour together, prompting Canadian
Governor General David Johnston to dub the country the
“honeymoon capital of the Commonwealth.”
Instead of the predictable tour of etiquette and pomp,
however, William and Catherine’s visit was more akin to a
crash course in Canadian culture.
“We’ve been looking forward to this moment for a very
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long time, and before we were
married, we had a longing to
come here together,” William
told a crowd during the cou-
ple’s first stop in Ottawa, the
capital city.
The 12-day North American
juggernaut saw the novice Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge race each other in
dragon boats off Prince Edward Island, try their
hand at cooking soufflé in Montreal, raise hockey sticks in
the Northwest Territories, and even don ten-gallon cowboy
hats at the world’s largest rodeo festival in Calgary.
After nine days and 2,300 miles of travel across Canada
— not only by plane but also by naval ship and canoe —
William and Catherine journeyed south to Los Angeles,
where they attended a fundraiser for the British Academy of
Film and Television Arts, of which William is president.
Throughout the tour, humanitarianism set the agenda.
On the tarmac at Calgary Airport, the couple took time to
meet Diamond Marshall, a six-
year-old cancer patient. The
newlyweds’ stint in LA included
a tour of the Inner-City Arts
campus in skid row, where
young students grapple with pov-
erty and homelessness. But perhaps
most heartwarming was William and
Catherine’s decision to cut their private
time short in order to make an unscheduled visit
to the small community of Slave Lake, Alberta, where relief
workers and displaced families were still dealing with the
aftermath of a devastating fire.
Far from typical, the young couple’s “honeymoon” permit-
ted few private moments together, save for an evening at his-
toric Skoki Lodge in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. But both
royals proved tireless in taking on their marathon-like itiner-
ary, not to mention in engaging with eager crowds who often
greeted them with chants of “Will and Kate, Will and Kate.”
In fact, Canada is no stranger to royal visits. Since the
Duchess Catherine looks on as Prince William plays street hockey during an event at the Somba K’e Civic Plaza in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, on their nine-day tour in Canada.
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Left: Prince William and Duchess Catherine board a Seaplane bound for Blachford Lake at the Old Town Float Base on July 5, 2011, in Yellowknife, Canada.
Below: Prince William and Duchess Catherine row dragon boats across Dalvay Lake on July 4, 2011, in Charlottetown, Canada. The 12 day visit to North America took in some more remote areas such as Prince Edward Island, Yellow-knife, and Calgary. The Royal couple started off their tour by joining millions of Canadians in taking part in Canada Day celebrations which mark Canada’s 144th birthday.
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Duchess Catherine and Prince William arrive at Calgary Airport on July
7, 2011, in Calgary, Canada. The newly-
married Royal Couple were on the eighth
day of their first joint overseas tour.
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18th century, members of the royal family have journeyed
across the Atlantic, not only for more traditional tours, but
also for private getaways, military service, and even to attend
school. The earliest royal visit took place in 1786, when
Prince Albert Edward, the future King William IV, began
making frequent trips to Canada’s east coast while serving
in the Royal Navy. In 1939, the Queen Mother declared,
“Canada made us,” at the end of her first tour of the country
with her husband, King George VI.
Queen Elizabeth, however, tops even her most peripa-
tetic forbearers, having traveled to the northern seat of the
Commonwealth a total of 23 times — making Canada the
most-visited country on the Queen’s list.
Choosing Canada as the first official destination for
the newly minted royal couple was no doubt a calculated
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Duchess Catherine and Prince William speak with six-year-old terminal cancer sufferer Diamond as she arrives at Calgary Airport on July 7, 2011, in Calgary, Canada.
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decision on the part of Buckingham
Palace. Although republican rum-
blings remain — most notably in the
French-speaking province of Quebec
— the monarchist voice in Canada
appears to still be strong, even
amongst youth.
And who better to promote
this Commonwealth support than
the charismatic Duke and Duchess?
Youthful, glamorous, and approach-
able — relatively speaking — Wil-
liam and Catherine are proving to be
the royal family’s most powerful PR
weapon.
Tom Richards, head of the youth
wing of the Monarchist League of
Canada, pointed to the popular new-
lyweds as a key factor in the increase
of the organization’s membership.
Youth are now the league’s fastest-
growing demographic, with mem-
bership sky-rocketing from a few
hundred to approximately 2,250 in
the past two years.
“This is monarchy 2.0. This
is the new generation. The institu-
tion is being reinvented for a new
generation,” echoed Matthew Rowe,
a league spokesman, in Ottawa.
As late as 2009, however, the
monarchy’s popularity in the Great
White North was on thin ice. That
year, William’s father, Prince Charles,
received a more subdued welcome
from sparse Canadian crowds, while
protesters clashed with riot police
during the Prince’s stop in Montreal.
A national poll conducted at the
time revealed that two-thirds of Ca-
nadians would prefer an elected head
of state that was native to their side of the pond. A year later,
another poll conducted during a visit by Queen Elizabeth
showed more favorable results, with less than half of Canadi-
ans deeming the monarchy to be an outdated institution.
If the crowds that thronged Parliament Hill for William
and Catherine’s visit on July 1 are any indication, support for
the Palace is gaining ground. Around 300,000 turned up for
the Canada Day celebrations, which typically draw 50,000.
South of the border, California also found itself in the
grips of “Wills and Kate mania.” In a town accustomed to the
cult of celebrity, the Duke and Duchess were in a league all
their own as they touched down in Los Angeles on July 8th.
Prince William and Duchess Catherine are greeted by British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, (C) and his wife Lady Julia Sheinwald, California Governor Jerry Brown, and his wife Anne Gust as they arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. The newly married Royal Couple were on a three-day visit to Southern California.
Lady Julia Sheinwald (curtseying), wife of British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, greets Prince William and Duchess Catherine as they arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. Also pictured are (L-R) Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Governor Jerry Brown, and his wife Anne Gust, who is holding a red, white and blue bouquet of flowers for the Duchess of Cambridge.
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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, are greeted by Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay at a private reception held at the British Consul-General’s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. The 12 day visit to North America was coming to a conclusion with a three-day visit to Southern California.
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Above: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, attend a private reception at the British Consul-General’s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.
Opposite Page: Duchess Catherine and Prince William look on during remarks by British ambassador to the United States Sir Nigel Sheinwald. This photo was taken during a private reception at the British Consul-General’s residence on July 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.
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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine,
Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the 2011 BAFTA ‘Brits To
Watch’ Event at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in
Los Angeles, California.
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Above: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, in conversation with Rita Wilson and Jennifer Garner while attend-ing the BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch’ event held at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.
Left: Prince William and Duchess Catherine speak with Jennifer Lopez at the 2011 BAFTA ‘Brits To Watch’ Event at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.
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After a walk down the red carpet, the couple joined
Hollywood’s own royalty — including Nicole Kidman, Tom
Hanks and Jennifer Lopez — for a black tie-affair benefiting
BAFTA, an independent charity that supports British talent in
the film, television, and video gaming industries. Earlier that
day, William put his long hours on the polo field to good use
in Santa Barbara, where he played — and fittingly won — a
match as part of another fundraising event. This time, the
couple used the star-studded event to support the Ameri-
can Friends of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince
Harry, which focuses its efforts on the environment, armed
forces, and disadvantaged youth.
In the United States as in Canada, the Duke and Duchess
greeted crowds with poise and a well-practiced intimacy. Add
in the pair’s sartorial sensibility, not to mention Catherine’s
megawatt smile, and these young royals have a gloss few can
ever hope to attain.
But it was not simply William and Catherine’s star power
that drew crowds on every leg of a tour that spanned three
time zones. Instead, Canadians and Americans alike seemed
bewitched by the royal couple’s relaxed manner, their big-
hearted agenda, and their genuine affection for one another.
While attending the Calgary Stampede on their final night
in Canada, William told a crowd that both he and Catherine
understood what his great-grandmother had meant when she
declared, “Canada made us,” in 1939.
“Canada has far surpassed all that we were promised.
Our promise to Canada is that we shall return,” William said
to raucous cheers.
As this love story expands to include not only a Duke
and Duchess, but now an entire nation, William and Cath-
erine will no doubt be welcomed back with open arms. n
Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Nicole Kidman, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, attend the BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch’ event held at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011, in Los Angeles, California.
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Above: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, shown seated (upper right) watch a performance during a tour of the Inner City Arts campus in Los Angeles on July 10, 2011.
Prince William and his wife Catherine were on a royal visit to California from July 8 to July 10.
Below: Steven M. Missimer (L), USO Vice President of Programs, with Britain’s Prince William (C) and his wife Catherine (R), the Duchess of Cambridge. They put together USO boxes during the Mission Serve ‘Hiring Our Heroes’ job fair at Sony Studios in Culver City, California, USA, on July 10, 2011.
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Events that dazzle. But no one shines brighter than you.
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Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Jessica
Alba join the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
Coalition to discuss the Safe Chemicals Act at
the United States Capitol.
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To say Jessica Alba’s life is hectic would
be an understatement. The Hollywood
actress famous for her roles in such block-
buster films as “Fantastic Four” and “sin
City” is also a busy mother expecting her
second child in september.
This year, Alba added another feather
to her cap by speaking out as an activist for
environmental issues in Washington, D.C.
In May, Alba joined senators Lautenberg
and Udall on Capitol Hill in support of the
safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition,
an organization that is pressing Congress
for stronger federal toxins legislation.
“As you may have heard, I’ll be having my
second child soon. It would be wonderful if
Congress could pass this legislation in time
for his or her arrival,” a visibly pregnant Alba
told members of Congress on May 24th.
“Don’t send flowers. No fruit baskets.
Instead, let’s all give the gift of health to
each other with the safe Chemicals Act,”
she said at the event sponsored by senator
Frank Lautenberg. In April, the New
Jersey senator proposed Bill s.487, the
“safe Chemicals Act,” to reform the 1976
Toxic substances Control Act, the only law
regulating chemicals in the United states.
From baby bottles to wallpaper, Lauten-
berg and the safer Chemicals, Healthy Fami-
lies coalition point to links between various
diseases — such as asthma and diabetes in
children — and some of the thousands of
chemicals present in day-to-day products.
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Actress Jessica Alba (L) joins Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition to speak with Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) in his office about pushing passage of
the Safe Chemicals Act in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
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Above: Actress Jessica Alba attends a kickoff event with her daughter Honor (L), alongside Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver (R), for the National Education Association (NEA) Read Across America Day, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Alba joined First Lady Michelle Obama and film, television, and sports personalities in the event marking Dr. Seuss’ 107th birthday and the start of the 14th annual reading campaign.
Right: Green Bay Packers football player widereceiver Donald Driver attends NEA’s Read Across America Kickoff with actress and activist Jessica Alba at The Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
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Now more than 11 million members strong, the coalition
advocates for greater oversight from the Environmental
Protection Agency, as well as more clout for the TSCA, which
remains the country’s only federal environmental legislation
yet to receive a congressional update.
As a soon-to-be mother of two, Alba’s efforts in this
environmental campaign hit close to home. By taking her
star power from the screen to the Hill, the actress’ appearance
in Washington renewed momentum in the bill, particularly
as political debate heats up over reforming the TSCA.
Opponents to the bill argue that research on the dangers
of chemicals such as phthalates — substances commonly
found in everything from vinyl flooring to cosmetics — is
tenuous.
“We need a steady drumbeat of American moms telling
Congress to fight for the safety of your family,” the film star
countered in a letter released concurrently with her two-day
lobbying effort in the capital.
Hazardous chemicals, however, were not the only
cause on Alba’s plate this year. In March, the actress and her
young daughter, Honor, joined First Lady Michelle Obama
in kicking off the 14th annual Read Across America Day at
the Library of Congress. The event also marked the 107th
birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss, with Alba and others
reading from the celebrated writer’s oeuvre in front of nearly
300 elementary students.
Although this sort of political engagement might seem
unusual for a famed starlet, Alba is no stranger to activism.
The actress has travelled to countries including Ghana
and Senegal as the United States co-chair of the 1GOAL
campaign, which advocates for universal basic education
for children. Habitat for Humanity, RADD and SOS Children
Inspired.Successful.Empowered.
Inspired. Successful. [email protected] • www.britishschoolofwashington.org
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Jessica Alba poses with children at
a news conference last year to discuss the
1GOAL campaign at the Rayburn House
Office Building in Washington, DC.
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Villages also number amongst
Alba’s many charitable works,
while in 2008 she raised
eyebrows with a controversial
advertising campaign aimed
at encouraging youth voter
turnout.
On the surface, Alba
might appear to be following
the strict formula of Holly-
wood’s glamorous set. After
all, she is a frequent cover
girl for beauty magazines, a
veteran of Hollywood action
films, and a spokesperson for
cosmetic lines. Outside her
day job, however, the 30-year-
old actress paints a second
portrait of an engaged citizen
harnessing her lofty position
as a platform for the under-
represented.
With a second child on
the way, Alba’s future humani-
tarian engagement remains to
be seen. For now, she stands
as a refreshing exception to
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It’s a long way from south Central Los Angeles, where award-winning actor, producer, and director Forest Whitaker grew up, and the violence-torn African country of Uganda, but that is the
road he has traveled. It’s a long way from being a kid in south Central Los Angeles to having his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to being named as a UNEsCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Recon-ciliation, but that too is a path Forest Whitaker has walked. UNEsCO — the United Nations Educational, scientific, and Cultural Organization — named Whitaker a Goodwill Ambassador early this
James A. Winship, Ph.D.
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James A. Winship, Ph.D.
Actor Forest Whitaker delivers a speech on June 21, 2011, at
the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, after being named Goodwill Ambassador for Peace
and Reconciliation for the United Nations’ educational, scientific,
and cultural body.
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summer at a ceremony held at its headquarters building in
Paris. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General and the first
woman to hold that position, indicated that the ambassadori-
al designation comes in recognition of Whitaker’s humanitar-
ian and artistic commitments. “You have a true gift,” she told
Whitaker, “this is the gift of empathy, the gift of understand-
ing, and the gift of reaching out to others. This compassion
has guided your actions as a citizen of the world — beyond
the silver screen.” These traits, she continued, are most vis-
ible in his film projects such as “Better Angels,” a film about
Ugandan child soldiers, and “Common Destiny,” a documen-
tary about the common goals of achieving peace and mutual
understanding, and the power of education in promoting
peace and reconciliation between and within communities.
At the Paris induction ceremony Ambassador David Kil-
lion, Permanent Delegate of the United States of America to
UNESCO, described Whitaker’s most unique gift. “He sees
the humanity in everyone, without exception. He reminds
us of the true meaning of compassion. True compassion
knows no prejudices, geographical boundaries, color, age, or
Actor Forest Whitaker (L) and UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova present the document officializing Whitaker’s nomination as
Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation for the United Nations’ educational, scientific, and cultural body on June 21, 2011,
at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.
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gender. It is about connecting with people as they are, where
they are. And it is through true compassion and human
connections that we can build peace.” Ambassador Killion
noted that, “This is why Forest is such a perfect choice as a
Goodwill Ambassador. He has exemplified compassion in
every area of his life, with humility and grace. He does this
because it’s the right thing to do, not because it makes head-
lines or promotes his next film.”
Whitaker, who has a long filmography and an extended
list of television credits in his 30-year acting career, is best
known for his Academy Award winning performance as Best
Actor in the 2006 film “The Last King of Scotland.” In that
film he played the role of Ugandan dictator General Idi Amin
(1971-1979). Immersing himself in preparations for the role,
Whitaker reviewed news and documentary footage of Amin
in office, learned the Swahili language, mastered Amin’s East
African accent, and spent time meeting with Ugandans who
had known Amin closely as well as with victims of Amin’s
repression.
The actor’s involvement with Uganda did not end with
the completion of “The Last King of Scotland,” however. He
actively took up the cause of “child soldiers,” openly speaking
against the outrage of children being forced to take up arms
with rebel groups and being trained to fight adult conflicts
in Uganda, elsewhere in Africa, and across the world. One
of the actors Whitaker worked with in Uganda, Okello Sam,
had started an orphanage as a refuge for child soldiers who
broke away from their captors. Whitaker quickly became
involved in the work of Hope North Uganda, a boarding
school and vocational training center for escaped child
soldiers, orphans, and other young victims of Uganda’s
extended civil conflict.
As part of his UNESCO induction ceremony, Whitaker
screened his new documentary, “A Place of Peace,” which tells
the story of Hope North Uganda. The center, the film makes
clear, is more than simply a refuge; it is a place of self-discov-
ery. Many of the young people there have been traumatized
by the conflict that has surrounded them all of their lives and
the violence that has broken their ties to family and com-
munity. In many ways, the center is becoming a new village,
offering a place of connectedness and preparing displaced
young people to re-enter society and to rebuild their lives.
Still, as Whitaker is quick to point out, for many of these
young people who have been forced to commit acts of vio-
lence and killing, “the most important thing is forgiveness . . .
forgiveness of self as well as forgiveness from the outside.”
At a recent UNESCO meeting of the High Panel of
Peace and Dialogue Among Cultures held at United Nations
headquarters in New York, Whitaker explained that his com-
mitment to the issues of ending community violence and the
abuse of childhood caused by dragging children into com-
mitting acts of violence was born of his own childhood in
South Central Los Angeles where he watched the rise of gang
violence all around him. He observed that there were com-
monalities between instances of youth violence wherever they
occurred. “Their stories are related,” he said talking about
his film “Better Angels.” “This story happened in Uganda,
but you’d hear the same stories all over the world in different
incarnations.”
Whitaker hopes that his initial missions as a UNESCO
Goodwill Ambassador will continue to involve him with
young people and working to help them learn basic peace
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon poses for a photo with a group of children at the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kamapala, Uganda.
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72 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
and reconciliation techniques that will be of immediate use
in their lives and communities. In the words of Director
General Bokova, “This organization was created in 1945 to
build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women.
Let us work to show that peace can be built through com-
passion and understanding, through dialogue, respect, and
reconciliation.”
Even as he was accepting his ambassadorial appointment
from UNESCO, Whitaker was taking yet another compas-
sionate step by premiering a new documentary on OWN
— the Oprah Winfrey Network. Entitled “Serving Life,” the
documentary — narrated and executive produced by Whita-
ker and directed by Lisa R. Cohen — focuses on the hospice
program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, a
maximum security prison where 85 percent of the inmates
will never know liberty again. It seems an unlikely place to
discover compassion, but in this hospice program, inmates
care for those among them who are terminally ill. Ironically,
here inmates rediscover life in caring for others and are led
to acknowledge a personal responsibility for their criminal
actions and their disconnected lives. Here is another episode
in Whitaker’s acting career of revealing surprising truths: care
and compassion can flourish and humanity can be discovered
in the most unexpected places.
As she concluded her presentation UNESCO Director-
General Bokova recalled to Whitaker words that he had
spoken when he won the Academy Award. He began acting,
Whitaker recalled, because of a desire to “connect with every-
one — to that thing inside each of us, that light that I believe
exists in all of us. Acting,” Whitaker said on that occasion, “is
about believing in that connection, and it’s a connection so
strong, it’s a connection so deep, that we feel it. And through
our continued belief, we can create a new reality.” Bokova
concluded her remarks by turning Whitaker’s own words to
new purpose. The mission with which she charged him was
“by dreaming and connecting [to] ‘create a new reality.’”
It’s a daunting mission, but one that Forest Whitaker is
clearly well prepared to undertake. n
Left to right: Actor Michael Douglas, Oprah Winfrey, actor Forest Whitaker, and actress Emma Thompson speak in the audience during the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Mike Nichols held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Forest Whitaker is premiering his newest documentary on the Oprah Winfrey Network entitled, “Serving Life.” It is narrated and executive produced by Whitaker.
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74 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
In July, the Niall
Mellon Townships
Initiative held its first
Washington, DC, fund-
raiser at The Dubliner
on Capitol Hill with the
theme “Building Homes,
Building Hope.” Since the
non-profit was established
by the Irish philanthropist
Niall Mellon in 2002, over
10,000 volunteers have
been recruited from Ireland,
the United Kingdom, the
United States, and other nations to build homes for families in
South Africa previously living in dilapidated shacks without
water or electricity. The organization is currently working
in 23 townships. It is estimated that over two million homes
must be constructed to meet the decent housing needs of the
people of South Africa.
The event was attended
by the Ambassador of
Ireland, Michael Collins,
who spoke of his pride in
the spirit of volunteerism
which has prompted so
many people from his
country to join in the effort
to bring hope and dignity
to families living in the
townships of South Africa,
even during a time of
financial hardship in Ireland.
He also expressed his
appreciation to the American volunteers who have joined in
partnership with the Irish in recent years.
Representative Donald Payne, a member of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee who has personally visited the
townships and participated in a handover ceremony to present
a family with the key to their new home, spoke about the
Congressm an Payne and Congresswom an McCollumjoin Ir i sh A mba ssador Coll ins in fundr a i ser
Building Homes, Building Hope
in South Africa
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 75
Congressman Donald Payne, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, praised the work of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative. Looking on (from left to right) are Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Dotti Mavromatis of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative, and Keith Carney, National Director of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
76 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
many additional benefits of decent housing,
“Giving families a home with clean running water
and electricity dramatically changes their lives for
the better. Children are healthier, safer, and able
to perform better in school. The program also
provides job training opportunities and stresses
environmental sustainability.”
Representative Betty McCollum, a member of
the powerful House Budget and Appropriations
Committees and a strong supporter of the Niall
Mellon Townships Initiative, also attended, along
with Mr. Norman Houston, Director of the
Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington, DC. n
Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins (far right) was joined by (from left to right) Alexandria Attorney Bob Nealon; Legislative Assistant to Representative Jim Moran - Tom Garofalo and National Director of the Ancient Order of Hibernians - Keith Carney.
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Over 15,000 homes have been built in 23 townships in South Africa through the work of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative.
The non-profit is the largest charity provider of quality social housing in South Africa. Headquartered in Ireland, the
organization has offices in South Africa and Washington, DC.
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Following his re-election
to a second five-year
term as Secretary-
General of the United
Nations, Ban Ki-moon
chose to make an
extended nine-day
visit to Japan and the
Republic of Korea. His
visit coincided with the
sixty-sixth anniversary
of the atomic bombing
of the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and with the
twentieth anniversary
of the admission of the
Republic of Korea and
the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea to
the United Nations. He
also used his visit as an
opportunity to introduce
some of the themes that
he hopes to emphasize
during his second term
as Secretary-General.
One goal of his visit
was to renew working
acquaintances with
political and diplomatic
leaders in Japan and
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) meets with Kim Sung-hwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, on August 12, 2011, in Seoul.
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Korea, but Ban also met with business and community leaders
as well as villagers and students. He concluded his journey
with a visit to his ancestral home. One look at the schedule
makes it clear that the Secretary-General is more than the CEO
of the extensive United Nations bureaucracy. The role calls for
its holder to be a mediator of consummate skill, an unusually
articulate communicator, and an ambassador for the broader
global concerns of justice, human rights, economic develop-
ment, and international security, especially as these are more
definitively expressed in the UN’s Millennium Development
Goals targeted for 2015. Each of these themes was visible in
the Secretary-General’s demanding schedule.
Though last year he attended the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Ceremony, this year Secretary-General Ban chose to
visit with displaced persons in eastern Japan who suffered the
effects of the “triple disasters” — earthquake, tsunami, and
nuclear accident — that struck the region this spring. After
meeting with evacuees in Fukushima, Japan, Ban told report-
ers that he “was able to read in their faces that they were really
asking the [Japanese] government and the United Nations
that this kind of accident which happened in the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant should never happen again in
other parts of the world.” He also welcomed assurances
from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan that, “The Japanese
government will share its invaluable experience and lessons
learned from this tragedy with the international community,
particularly in the area of disaster risk reduction and prepared-
ness and also strengthening nuclear safety standards.”
Before departing Japan, Secretary-General Ban met with
Japan’s Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and expressed his
thanks to the Japanese government for its support of United
Nations field missions and for enhancing the capacity of UN
peacekeepers, particularly the assistance provided by Japan to
the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). At the
same time, Mr. Ban also reiterated his request that Japan
consider contributing engineers to the UN’s newest peace-
keeping mission in South Sudan (UNMIS).
Arriving in South Korea, where he would meet with
President Lee Myung-bak and other government leaders, Mr.
Ban addressed the United Nations Academic Impact Forum
meeting in Seoul and was hosted by the Korean Council for
University Education and Handong Global University. The
Forum is an outgrowth of the Secretary-General’s Academic
Impact Initiative designed to build stronger ties between the
United Nations and institutions of higher learning around
the globe and to leverage the resources of the higher educa-
tion community to assist UN programming around the world.
A statue representing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands in the small farming village where he was born in Eumseong County, North Chun-gcheong Province, Republic of Korea.
Mr. Ban visited the area, making stops at his old high school and the home he grew up in.
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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon waves to students of Chungju High School, his old school, after speaking with students, in North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea on August 14, 2011.
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“The initiative,” noted Mr. Ban “has grown very encouragingly.
What started with a few schools and the simple wish to har-
ness academia’s great power for the common good, has become
a global enterprise. More than 670 schools in 104 countries
are now taking part — 47 from the Republic of Korea alone.”
Ban reminded his academic audience that the United
Nations was founded as an organization where states and their
diplomatic representatives would meet to resolve disputes be-
fore they became major conflicts, to protect human rights, and
to promote improved standards of living for the world’s people.
“Today,” however, “a new view has taken hold: Governments
cannot do it alone, nor should they want to. As the chal-
lenges we face grow more complex and interconnected, the
United Nations has opened its doors to a wide range of new,
exciting, and sometimes unexpected partners: businesses and
non-governmental organizations; philanthropies and parlia-
mentarians; young people empowered by technology and the
latest social mobilization tools. The academic community is
among those key new partners injecting dynamism into our
work and making such partnerships the wave of the future.”
Addressing the Third Global Model United Nations
Conference meeting in Inchon the next day, Secretary-General
Ban told the assembled student ambassadors from around the
world, “Your experience in this conference will give you a full
taste of the complexity of international relations, the intricacies
of negotiations among diverse peoples and perspectives, the
challenges of achieving consensus and the patience required
to win progress. Yes, technology offers solutions,” he told
the students, “but I prefer to put my faith in people, young
people in particular. That is why the United Nations needs
your engagement on the challenges that will shape the world
you will leave to your children. After all, you will soon be
the government officials who will negotiate peace, the com-
munity leaders who will help feed and shelter the vulnerable,
the entrepreneurs and innovators who will get carbon
emissions under control, the lawyers and human rights
defenders who will fight injustice, impunity, and intolerance.”
He concluded, “That is why I am telling you the future of
our world depends on your active engagement today.”
Ban also told the students that if there was one theme
that summed up his first term as Secretary-General and would
shape his second term, it is “new multilateralism.” “No single
country or group of countries, no matter how powerful they
may be, can take on the major issues of the day alone. In an
era when challenges spill over borders and have global reach,
our future depends on how well we work together.”
Speaking to the assembled diplomatic community in
Seoul the following day, Secretary Ban began to outline the
agenda that would accompany this theme. The most imme-
diate crisis on his mind is in the Horn of Africa, but that is a
microcosm of the larger problems of sustainable development
that is at the top of his list of priorities. Global and regional
security and democratization challenges, including the
transitions underway in Egypt and Tunisia and diplomatic
efforts to find a solution to the conflict in Libya are also
critical priorities. Budgetary and institutional reforms of
the United Nations’ operations are also central concerns.
Mr. Ban also took this opportunity to address the unique
situation on the Korean peninsula. Food shortages caused
by a harsh winter and severe flooding in North Korea have
caused the World Food Programme to launch emergency
assistance operations. While the major challenge of improv-
Left: Children await the arrival of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the
small village where he was born, in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea, as part of
a welcome ceremony held by county officials on August 14, 2011.
Opposite page, top: Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon is embraced by his mother at the welcome ceremony.
Opposite page, bottom: Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon (seated left),
accompanied by his wife, Yoo Soon-taek, lays out offerings at his father’s tomb in
Eumseong County, where Mr. Ban was born, in North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea on August 14, 2011. UN
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D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 83
ing inter-Korean relations “is the responsibility of the parties
themselves,” the United Nations will do its part to help in
meeting the challenge of creating a nuclear-weapon-free,
democratic, and prosperous Korean Peninsula. Ban strongly
supported South Korea’s growing international presence
and praised Lee Myung-bak’s Global Korea initiatives. “This
country made an inspiring transformation from poverty
to prosperity, and from repressive governance to robust
democracy,” the Secretary-General recalled. “My strong feel-
ing is that this gives Korea a special obligation to help poorer
nations have the same opportunities and a better future.”
Before leaving South Korea to return to New York,
Secretary-General Ban, his wife, Madam Yoo Soon-taek, and
other members of his family visited his childhood home in
rural Eumseong county, where he was greeted by local lead-
ers and his 92-year-old mother, Shin Hyun Soon. While
there, Mr. Ban visited a reconstructed version of his child-
hood home, a two-bedroom thatched roof structure heated
by a wood-burning central oven that would warm the entire
house, where he grew up in a family of eight. He began his
day by visiting his father’s burial site to pay respect to the
deceased and visiting a family shrine to honor his ancestors.
Later in the day, he also visited Chungju High School,
where he graduated and met his wife. There he recalled how
the principal had encouraged him to enter a Red Cross-
sponsored essay contest, which he won and which provided
him with the opportunity to visit the United States. In
Washington, DC, as an 18-year-old he had the opportunity
to meet President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It was “the most
inspiring moment of his life.” Mr. Ban has often recalled how
he grew up a child of war in Korea. That experience coupled
with the Kennedy meeting as a young man prompted Ban to
ponder his own future, “I thought about how Korea was such
a poor and underdeveloped country, [and] I considered what
I could do to make Korea a better place. And I decided to
become a diplomat.”
That decision would take him on a path that would lead
to becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade in South Korea and would lead from there to his current
position as Secretary-General. Standing in his hometown,
speaking to villagers, political leaders, and students, Mr. Ban
urged them to think of themselves not just as residents of
Eumseong county, but as citizens of the world. “Global is local
and local is global,” he reminded them. “You may live here in
Eumseong county, but you have access to the world.” Those
who listened to his words were hometown folks, but the
audience for his message was the global community. n
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84 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
Monique Coleman, designated United Nations
Youth Champion for the International Year of Youth.
Opposite Page: Coleman visiting the ‘Un Techo
Para Mi Pais’ project in Chile — A youth run
organization that addresses the issue of poverty by building solutions, one
house at a time.
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 85
The United Nations has long recognized the importance of
harnessing the passion and creativity of young people to
drive change in the world. And the organization put a special
focus on this issue during their just-concluded International
Year of Youth, which ran from August 12, 2010, through
August 11, 2011.
As part of this year-long focus, the UN created a new
designation — that of Youth Champion. In November 2010,
they appointed American actress Monique Coleman, best
known for playing Taylor McKessie in the “High School
Musical” movies, as the first ever to fill this role.
In accepting the title, Coleman pledged to raise aware-
ness about the challenges young people face and to highlight
the positive contribution they make to their communities. The
actress also promised to use her position to promote global
efforts to achieve the anti-poverty Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), which have a 2015 deadline, with a special
emphasis on the empowerment of youth.
Coleman said she recognized the importance of the UN
in advancing human rights, global security, and sustainable
development, and she was excited to have the opportunity to
see the UN’s impact with her own eyes. “My motivation for
becoming involved with the UN and the International Year of
Youth is simply because I want to make a difference,” Coleman
said at the time. “The UN stands for everything I believe in,
and I’m deeply honored and grateful to work on their behalf.”
After her appointment in November, Coleman held listen-
ing sessions with youth around the world to hear firsthand
how global, regional, and national issues affect them today. Her
six-month world tour kicked off in February in Sydney, Austra-
lia, and then took her around the globe with stops in Thailand,
The Philippines, China, Japan, Bangladesh, India, South Africa,
Chile, and more. Using social media channels and her online
talk show “Gimme Mo’” as a platform, Coleman connected
youth worldwide and urged bridge building across cultures,
religions, and generations.
Recently, at a special luncheon hosted by the United
Nations Foundation and the United States Agency for Interna-
tional Development (USAID), Coleman shared insights from
her travels. “Un Techo Para Mi Pais in South America was one
of the most impressive projects I visited on my tour,” she said.
“It’s a youth-run organization that addresses the issue of pover-
ty in Latin America by building solutions one house at a time.”
The goal of this UN-supported initiative is to lift young people
U n i t e d n a t i o n s F o U n d a t i o n
By Karin Lornsen
86 w w w. D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S . C O M
out of extreme poverty through the construction of transitional
houses and the implementation of social inclusion programs.
“The site I visited almost brought me to tears,” Coleman said.
“Here, I got to see that what these young people are doing is
working. The project builds so much more than houses. They
build people.”
Un Techo Para Mi Pais is a terrific example of
youth helping youth, and is one of many projects
promoted by the UN to help young people ages 15
to 24 to make a difference in the world. Similarly,
the United Nations Foundation recognizes the val-
ue of youth volunteerism in international causes
and has provided various platforms for this demo-
graphic to get involved. For instance, the Global
Classrooms educational program and Model UN
events allow high school students to step into the
shoes of UN Ambassadors and debate a range of
issues on the UN agenda. (These programs are
both run by the Foundation’s United Nations As-
sociation of the United States of America.) Also,
the UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign allows
Coleman with children living in the SOS Children’s Village in South Africa.
American girls to help raise funds and awareness
to provide girls in developing countries with basic
needs such as school supplies, clean water, and
health services.
As for Coleman, she says the UN Youth
Questions for Monique Coleman from Football United players in Sydney, Australia.
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 87
U n i t e d n a t i o n s F o U n d a t i o n
Above: Coleman visits the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, which serves over 70,000 refugees who fled wars in
neighboring countries.
Left: Monique Coleman, United Nations Youth Champion for the International
Year of Youth, during a press conference at UN Headquarters.
88
D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 89
Monique Coleman visits the Gandhi Memorial International School in Jakarta, Indonesia, as a guest of the United Nations Information Centre.
July, 2011, back in the United States, Coleman talks about her travels to 25 countries for the United Nations at an event in Washington, DC, hosted by the UN Foundation. She is surrounded by fellow panelists, Youth Action Net Director Ashok Regmi, USAID Senior Advisor Nicole Goldin, and UN Foundation’s Aaron Sherinian.
Champion position taught her some important
lessons. “I don’t take my career less seriously, but
I take myself less seriously,” she said. “I realized
that if I don’t get a role, or if it doesn’t move me
or interest me, that there are plenty of planes I
can jump on, plenty of young people that could
use some inspiration or empowerment.”
And what does Coleman think teens and
tweens in the U.S. and around the world can do
to make a difference? “Young people can first
make themselves aware of the problems in their
area and then come up with sustainable solutions
to solve them,” she said. “Volunteerism is a great
start. It connects you with people who are already
making a difference and gives you skills that can
later be applied to your own projects.” n
To learn more about the UN’s work with the world’s youth,
visit: www.diplomaticconnections.comand click on: http://social.un.org/index/Youth.aspx
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that sets The Fairfax at Embassy Row
apart from the rest.
Alhambra-US Event at the Embassy of Malaysia
Alhambra-US Event at the Embassy of Malaysia
Embassy of Austria with the Ambassador and his wife
Uzbekistan Embassy
President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Chef Timms
Fx Hotel ad 8.11.indd 2-3 8/23/11 3:22:15 AM
90
F2100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008
202.293.2100
Luxurycollection.com/Fairfax
Th e F a i r f a x at E m b a s s y Ro w
Nestled among the stately
mansions of Massachusetts
Avenue, The Fairfax at Embassy
Row, A Starwood Luxury
Collection Hotel, is a Washington,
D.C. landmark with a rich history
that spans more than seventy-five
years. With its legendary restaurant,
The Jockey Club, The Fairfax at
Embassy Row is the epicenter
of international discussion and
American politics. It is the place to
be in Washington, D.C.
Traditional and elegant
in style, the 259 guest
rooms and suites feature
elevated beds dressed in
crisp duvets, 300 thread
count linens, adorned
with rich gold embroidery.
The luxurious marble
bathrooms allow for
tranquil rejuvenation and
quiet contemplation.
The Fairfax at Embassy Row,
a Starwood Luxury Collection
Hotel, is located in the heart of
Embassy Row in Washington,
D.C. The Fairfax offers superior
accommodations, amenities
and services to all of its
international travelers.
Shirley Phull, Director of Diplomatic
Sales at The Fairfax at Embassy Row,
serves the needs of the city’s
embassies exclusively through the
partnering and the processing of all
communication between the
embassies and The Fairfax. Ms. Phull
brings experience, talent, commitment
and savoir faire to the fulfillment of the
various needs of the hotel’s diplomatic
clientele. It is this level of dedication
that sets The Fairfax at Embassy Row
apart from the rest.
Alhambra-US Event at the Embassy of Malaysia
Alhambra-US Event at the Embassy of Malaysia
Embassy of Austria with the Ambassador and his wife
Uzbekistan Embassy
President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Chef Timms
Fx Hotel ad 8.11.indd 2-3 8/23/11 3:22:15 AM
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The Convergence of Luxury at Every AngleWELComE To ThE SWiSSôTEL ExpEriEnCE
Hosting world leaders and dignitaries for years has made Swissotel Chicago the preferred choice for diplomatic guests. We invite you to pamper yourself with the award-winning hospitality at Swissôtel Chicago, which sets the standard for downtown Chicago hotel accommodations. precise Swiss service – combined with midwest hospitality and European elegance – make this distinctive four-diamond landmark the perfect place for distinguished tastes.
323 East Wacker Drive | Chicago, iL 60601 p: +1 312 268 8219 | F: +1 312 268 8202www.swissotel.com
Diplomatic Contact:Kerry Johnson | p: +1 312 268 8211
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D I P L O M AT I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 95
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Celebrating over 75 years of luxury on Central Park,
Jumeirah essex house has a long tradition of welComing international
dignitaries to this manhattan landmark. the Jumeirah essex house is situated in
the very heart of the City’s vibrant business and Cultural life,
minutes from the un and most midtown diPlomatiC missions.
Suhila Sultanalulama | Sales Manager, Middle East | Direct Line: +1 212 484 5135 | Fax: +1 212 484 4614
Email: [email protected]
Legendary BeverLy HiLLs HoteL.
Luxurious Comfort & exCeptionaL serviCe.
ideally located in the heart of Beverly Hills, The peninsula Beverly Hills resembles a gracious private residence offering luxuriously appointed rooms, suites and villas nestled amid lush gardens for the most discerning of travelers.
˜Proud recipient of the AAA Five-Diamond and Forbes Five Star awards for 18 consecutive years
˜Check-in and check-out at your leisure
˜Complimentary wired and wireless Internet access in all rooms and public areas
˜The Belvedere restaurant AAA Five-Diamond award winner for 16 consecutive years
˜Twelve private cabanas at The Roof Garden pool overlooking Century City
˜Over 40 specialized Spa treatments utilizing products by Shiffa, Naturopathica and Epicuren
˜Iconic Peninsula Traditional Afternoon Tea in The Living Room
For reservations, contact (1-310) 551 2888 or E-mail [email protected]
9882 south santa monica Boulevard, santa monica, Ca 90212 usatelephone: (1-310) 551 2888 facsimile: (1-310) 788 2319 toll-free: (1-800) 462 6485 (from usa)
e-mail: [email protected] Website: peninsula.com/beverlyhillsHong Kong • Shanghai • Tokyo • New York • Chicago • Beverly Hills • Bangkok • Manila • Paris 2013