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Diplomatic Connections September-October 2012 Issue
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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 2 1
BUSINESS • POLITICS • SPORTS • ENTERTAINMENT • MILITARY & DEFENSE • CONGRESS
A Business, Diplomacy & Foreign Policy Publication
SePtemBer - OctOBer 2012 • $7.95
PBH_VanityFair_Nov.pdf 1 8/12/11 2:52 PM
PBH_VanityFair_Nov.pdf 1 8/12/11 2:52 PM
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Located just two short blocks from United Nations Plaza.
An eighteen story modern, well-appointed office building with more than 220,000 square feet of usable office space that can be custom tailored to your needs.
300 East 42nd Street is conveniently located just two short blocks from both United Nations Plaza and Grand Central Terminal. With many embassies and permanent missions in walking distance, this is an ideal location
for your diplomatic connections. The property is professionally managed and leased by Cushman & Wakefield.
Contact: René Zemp, Vice-President(+1) 212.957.1776 ext. 411
email: [email protected]
Introducing the All-NewBMW of Rockville.
On March 1, 2012 VOB BMW became BMW of Rockville, a family owned and operated dealership.
Special Diplomatic Pricing
Pre-Approved Leasing Plans
FREE Maintenance for 4 Years or 50,000 miles on all Brand New BMWsHome of Priority 1 Service. No Appointment Necessary. Just Drive in!
Please contact our Diplomatic Program Specialist Nicholas Popovici at 1-888-445-6023 to learn more about our program.
A new owner. A new name. A new way to do business.The same great Rockville Pike location.
1300 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 208521-888-445-6023 BMWRockville.com
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NEW YORK | CENTRAL PARK + SOHO CHICAGO LAS VEGAS WAIKIKI TORONTO PANAMA
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YOU DON’T COME TO CHICAGO. CHICAGO COMES TO YOU.
Experience more. Do more. Live the life. For reservations, visit TrumpChicagoHotel.com.
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We Offer: •AllMakesandModels •Closed-EndLeases •FinanceLeases •DeliveryofVehiclestoYourLocation •MaintenancePlans •CreditPre-Approved •QuickandEfficientStateDepartment TitlingandVehicleRegistration (DiplomaticTags)
YOUR CONNECTIONTO DIPLOMATIC LEASING__________________________
410-828-6200 • 1-888-919-6427AdmiralLeasing.com
Arnold WollmanVehicleLeasingSince1979
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Call today to schedule an appointment. We come to you!1-703-222-7161 or 1-703-620-0879RENTAL - www.InTouchUSA.com • SALES - www.InTouchSmartCards.com
• iPhones (never locked!), iPads (with optionalphone service!), Blackberrys & Tablets
• Pre & post paid SIM Cards loaded with air& data time for ANY country
• International & domestic mobile VoIP service
• Wireless Internet access• MyFi hotspots & tethering
Featuring short-term Rentals or Purchases without long contracts:
We offer special consultation services to our diplomatic community to review the various wireless and international services available.
Serving the diplomatic community for over 23 years!
4521, clark street, montréal (québec) H2T 2T3t. 514.286.9696 espressocommunication.com
Date: August 16, 2012Client: Roche BoboisProject: RBS-WAS1213Proof number: Final
Publication: Diplo ConnectionIssue: Sept-OctFormat: 7.5" x 4.75"Stroke: 0.5 pt
* Sectional as shown, upholstered in Tempo leather. Offer valid until 12.31.2012, not to be used in conjunction with any prior offer. Price does not include decoration cushions or other accessories and pieces unless stated otherwise. Manufactured in Europe.
ATLANTA - BOSTON - CHICAGO - COLUMBUS, OH - CORAL GABLES, FL - COSTA MESA, CA - DALLAS - DENVER - HOUSTON - LA JOLLA, CALOS ANGELES - MANHASSET, NY - NATICK - NEW YORK - PHILADELPHIA - SAN FRANCISCO - SAN JUAN, PR - SCOTTSDALE - SEATTLE - TROY, MI
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Illustration sectional, design Philippe Bouix.
éditionspéciale $7,595*
Instead of $10,669
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ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN HIGH SCHOOLPREPARING YOUNG MEN FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY1906
CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR | APPLY TODAY: WWW.RIORDANHS.ORG
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Rigorous academic program, including 14 AP Classes
Comprehensive college advising and SAT Prep
Programs for students with learning differences
Competitive athletic and music programs
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: CONNECTING THE WORLD
Finding a school where your child thrives provides a foundation for a successful future.
More than half a million families each year choose independent private schools. The schools that belong to the National Associa-tion of Independent Schools (NAIS) share a commitment to provid-ing safe environments in which young people can learn academic skills plus the importance of hard work, leadership, and good citizenship. Independent schools provide challenging academics and op-portunities to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, which prepares students for success at the next level. A study from the U.S. Department of Education found that 99 percent of students at NAIS schools graduated from high school and 90 per-cent of graduates attended four-year colleges. The Freshman Survey Trends Report, an annual study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, found that NAIS school graduates felt more prepared for the academic demands of college than their public school counterparts. As college fresh-man, NAIS graduates reported that they were more likely to ask questions in class and explore topics on their own, even though it was not required for a class.
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 2 9
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Trinity-Pawling School“A Commitment to Character”
A College PrePArAtory SChool for boyS
grAdeS 7-12 (dAy StudentS) grAdeS 9-12 & Pg (boArding StudentS)
(845) 855-4825 • www.trinitypawling.orgAdmissions:
(310) 836-3464, ext. [email protected]
The Higher Education Research Institute also found that gradu-ates from NAIS schools were more likely than public school graduates to have had an internship and to have accepted an offer of employment before graduating from col-lege. Independent educa-tion benefi ted gradu-ates in adulthood too. The National Educational Longitu-dinal Study (NELS), administered by the U.S. Department of Education, found that NAIS graduates were more likely to exercise regularly, volunteer in their communities, and read newspapers and magazines daily as adults than gradu-ates of other types of schools. One program overseen by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Chal-lenge 20/20, helps nurture community engagement while build-ing cross-cultural connections and awareness of global issues.
Challenge 20/20 is an Internet-based program that pairs classes at any grade level (elementary and secondary) from public and
private schools in the U.S. with similar-age classes in schools in other countries. To-gether, the teams (of two, three, or four schools) tackle real global problems over the course of a semes-ter to fi nd solutions that can be imple-mented at the local level and in their own communities.The projects relate to water defi cits, global infectious diseases, the fi ght against poverty, biotechnology rules, education for all, and biodiversity and eco-system losses, among other topics. Schools are paired up by NAIS, based on their interests
and age range. First, they share their perspectives on the issue and defi ne the impact of the issue globally and in their own communities. They work together to generate project ideas and to develop plans.
EDUCATE YOUR STUDENTS TO BECOME LEADERS IN AN INTERDEPENDENT WORLD.
EDUCATE YOUR STUDENTS TO BECOME LEADERS IN AN INTERDEPENDENT WORLD.
Challenge 20/20 connects schools in the United States with schools in other countries. Together, students work to identify local solutions to a global problem. Through this globally based, experiential curriculum, students develop cross-cultural competency and communication skills. This program is an online program that is free of charge and open to all schools.Since 2005, Challenge 20/20 has connected thousands of schools. Each year, we receive more than 500 applications from schools in nearly 60 countries.
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 2 11
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Preschool – Grade 6 / Camp
Individualized approach, small classes, challenging academics, and
positive social and emotional development
pinecrestschool.org • Annandale, Virginia • 703.354.3446
After-care Until 6 p.m.
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College Prep Boys & Girls Grades 6-12
Accepted to Harvard University Dominika Sarnecka (Poland)
Graduate May 2012
Attending Harvard University Nick Gavin (USA) Graduate May 2011
International Student Body From 26 Different Countries
Located in Sunny
Melbourne, Florida U.S.A.
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Finally, they share implementation strategies.The interaction with students from other countries and cultures is among the highlights of the program for many students. Developing cross-cultural communication skills is among the top assets listed by teachers too. A handful of schools request to be partnered with schools in specifi c regions to help practice lan-guage skills. Many groups continue communicating with their partners after the completion of the program, forging bonds both personal and institutional.Some schools have found that the program builds enthusiasm among parents and can drive volunteerism among community members too. Doctors or development workers may want to help
students study global infectious diseases, for instance, and law-yers may be able to share their expertise on intellectual property concerns. Many schools also partner with local community orga-nizations, such as food banks or conservation groups as part of their local implementation strategies.Programs like Challenge 20/20 help students connect with their communities and the world around them, hallmarks of a high-quality education. For more information about independent schools, please visit www.nais.org/go/parents. For information about Challenge 20/20, please see www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.
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Classical Concerts Held in the Intimate Settings of Embassies and Ambassadors’ Residences Since 1994, the Embassy Series has worked with over 100 ambassadors, hosted 300 plus concerts in 46 embassies involving more than 500 artists from the Washington area. By extending public access to the embassies in the Nation’s Capital, the Series offers its audience the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange - to watch and listen to a musical performance that highlights the contributions of a particular country. Such a backdrop allows the audience to “get a feel” for the nation being represented, which is key to promoting and celebrating the diversity of both a host embassy and Series patrons. These wonderful experiences are accentuated by a reception at the host embassy or residence immediately following the concert, where guests are encouraged to interact with the featured artists and the diplomatic community .
U p C o m I n g E v E n t S . . .
Visit EMBASSYSERIES.org for tickets, upcoming concerts and exclusive sponsorship opportunities or call 202-625-2361
MUSIC OF THE VILNA GHETTO EXPERIENCE09/09/2012 – 3:00 pmGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY GASTON HALL
LORENZO GATTO, VIOLINROBERT GIORDANO, PIANO10/04/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF LATVIA
VERONIKA DOBI-KISS, SOPRANOGEORGE PEACHEY, PIANO10/10/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF HUNGARY
FAIRFAX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA10/19/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF AUSTRIA
ISRAEL CHAMBER PROJECT10/25/2012 – 7:30 pmVENUE TO BE ANNOUNCED
ANDRE GORICAR, SILENT FILM PIANIST10/31/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF SLOVENIA
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 2 13
Visit DiplomaticConnections.com for photos and videos of cultural and diplomatic events, interviews with ambassadors and business leaders, business directories for major cities as well as digital editions of all of our past issues.
Providing benefit solutions for the following business sectorsand specialized situations:
Global Health Insurance Business Travel Accident Insurance
Groups in War Zones or Similar High Risk Areas NGO’s
Defense Base Act (DBA) Insurance Government Contractors
Corporations Visitor Visa Insurance
Schengen Visa Insurance Kidnap/Ransom
Inbound/Outbound Travel Groups (Missionaries, Student Delegations)
For Expert Advice Call 1-888-275-3924
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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 2 15
Protocol Partners-Washington Center for Protocol, Inc. is the premier firm of protocol professionals in Washington, D.C.
• On-site Protocol Operations• Customized Protocol and Business
Etiquette Training• Executive Consulting • Embassy/Consular Office In-house
Staff Briefings and Workshops• Cross-Cultural Communication Training
• Diplomacy and Business Relationships• Distinguished Visitor Program Coordination• Event/Visit Management and
Temporary Staffing• Transportation Coordination• Customer Service Training• Media Training
www.TheProtocolPartners.comVisit our website to:
• Discover what makes us unique • Register for a seminar• Find protocol resources
• Meet our team of protocol professionals who have directed protocol offices at the highest levels of the federal government, the military and the private sector.
1025 ConneCtiCut Avenue, n.W. • Suite 1000 • WAShington, D.C. 20036(202) 857-9753 • (202) 857-9799 Fax
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Located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building, the National Mall, Chinatown, Union Station, Verizon Center and Judiciary Square Metro!Stunning Views of the U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument and the city’s beautiful skyline await you...Ashton Judiciary Square features:• One, two & three bedroom furnished or
unfurnished luxury apartment homes
• Spacious living areas with scenic window walls to the city
• Gorgeous hardwood and travertine floors throughout
• European inspired kitchens with upgraded cabinetry and stainless steel appliances
• Extra large walk-in closets, high ceilings, exquisite details and modern amenities
• Elegant bathrooms with soaking tubs, marble countertops and top of the line fixtures
• Exclusive amenities include a premier fitness club, concierge services, gourmet coffee bar, video conference room and private access garage with dedicated parking.
A s h t o n J u d i c i a r y S q u a r e | 7 5 0 3 r d S t r e e t N W | W a s h i n g t o n , D C 2 0 0 0 1
View floor plans, photos, videos and all of the amenities at www.ashtonjs.comCall or email us today to schedule a tour!202-289-7990 | [email protected]
Crescent Luxury Apartments offer cleaner, sleeker, more modern living that reduces your environmental footprint and enhances your everyday life!
At the Crescent you’ll be conveniently located in Arlington, VA just a short walk to the East Falls Church Metro, a short drive to I-66, I-495, boutique shopping, bistros and fine dining restaurants in Tysons Corner.
Enjoy the wonderful green-based property features including a tree-lined promenade walkway connecting to a large park, reserved parking for low-emission, fuel-efficient vehicles and abundant bicycle storage.
Features and amenities include:• One & two bedroom furnished or
unfurnished luxury apartment homes
• Spacious, energy-efficient living in a modern atmosphere
• European inspired kitchens, upgraded cabinetry and granite slab countertops
• Extra large walk-in closets, high ceilings and certified green features
• Elegant bathrooms with soaking tubs, marble countertops and dual head showers
• Premiere amenities including a state of the art fitness club, two courtyards with fire pits, outdoor grilling and dual sided outdoor fireplace, plush clubhouse, theatre room and much more!
2121 No r t h Wes tmo re l and S t . | A r l i ng ton , VA 22213
View floor plans, photos, videos and all of the amenities at www.crescentva.com
Call or email us today to schedule a tour!703-237-5858 • [email protected]
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 2 17
1200 North Veitch Street, Arlington, VAOne block from the Courthouse Metro703.528.2700
• Fully furnished one, two, and three bedroom apartments
• Complimentary local phone service, cable TV with HBO, wireless high-speed internet
• State of the Art Fitness center, sauna, and both indoor and outdoor pools
• Raquetball court, driving range, basketball half court
• Game room and theater room
• Business Center
• Weekly housekeeping
• Assigned garage parking
• Unfurnished apartments also available
Catering to the needs of the
Diplomatic Community
www.Rent Dit tmar.com
4001 North Ninth Street, Arlington, VAOne block from the Ballston Metro703.525.9000
• Fully furnished studio, one, two, and three bedroom apartments
• Complimentary local phone service, cable TV with HBO, wireless high-speed internet
• State of the Art Fitness center, indoor pool, game room
• 24 hour Business Center with 6 iMacs
• Weekly housekeeping
• Assigned garage parking
• Unfurnished apartments also available
Catering to the needs of the
Diplomatic Community
www.Rent Dit tmar.com
iplomat eception RAD ppreciation iplomat ppreciation eception RAD
2012SAVE THE DATE
Diplomatic Connections is Hosting Another
On October 30, 2012
at the Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C.1330 Maryland Avenue, SW
October 30
SaveDate Mand.2012.indd 1 2/16/12 9:38:45 PM
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The Suites at Mandarin Oriental, Washington D.C. The Presidential Suite (top row), The Mandarin Suite (bottom row).1330 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington D.C. 20024. For more information, please call +1 (202) 554 8588 or visit www.mandarinoriental.com/washington.
PUBLICATION: Modern Luxury ISSUE: Winter 2012 TRIM: 8.25 x 10.8125 AD: SuitesSUBMISSION DATE: 2012
Rise above the fray and enjoy the luxury of our newly re-designed Signature Suites. Sweeping views of the monuments, Tidal Basin and cityscape will captivate you, while the suite’s classic yet
contemporary feel will delight the discerning guest who demands capital comfort and stellar service.
‘Suite’ Temptations
19
iplomat ppreciation eception RAD
2013SAVE THE DATE
On March 12, 2013
at the Hay AdamsAcross the Street from the White House
Diplomatic Connections is Hosting Another
in Washington, D.C.
March 12
SaveDate Hay.2013.indd 4 8/29/12 5:47 PM
20
21
iplomat eception RAD ppreciation iplomat ppreciation eception RAD
2013SAVE THE DATE
Diplomatic Connections is Hosting Another
On April 11, 2013
at the Madison HotelJust Blocks from the White House
in Washington, D.C.
April11
SaveDate Madison2013.indd 5 8/29/12 5:46 PM
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madison hotel ad 2.indd 3 4/17/12 4:46 PM
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DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDawn Parker
AssIsTANTs TO THE EDITORKyle Byram, Chanel Cherry
Ashley Gatewood, Rose Minor
BUsINEss DEVELOPMENT ExECUTIVEsEvan Strianese, Kendra Edmonds, James Owens
Mongoose Atlantic, Inc. – Stephen Channon, George Hoffman, Amber Smith
DEsIGN & CREATIVEKDG Advertising, Design & Marketing
DIPLOMATIC CORREsPONDENTsand CONTRIBUTING WRITERs
Roland Flamini, James Winship, PhD, Monica Frim, Meghan Lawson, F. Lewis Bristol, Kerry McKenney
EVENT COORDINATOR AssIsTANTsWilliam Lewallen, Nate Subra, Colleen Tankei, Cristina
Montesinos, Yuun Peñuelas, Jurong Kang
To contact an advertising executiveCALL: 202.536.4810FAx: 202.370.6882
EMAIL: [email protected]
DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONs WEBsITE DEsIGN & DEVELOPMENT
IMS (Inquiry Management Systems)304 Park Avenue South, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10010TOLL FREE: 877.467.8721 X701
Website: www.ims.com
Marc Highbloom, Vice [email protected]
Maria D’Urso, Project [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHYChristophe Avril, Paula Morrison,
Dr. John Frim, Kelly Houston
To order photos from the events go to:www.diplomaticconnections.com
Send any name or address changes in writing to:Diplomatic Connections
4410 Massachusetts Avenue / #200Washington, DC 20016
Diplomatic Connections Business Editionis published bi-monthly.
Diplomatic Connections does not endorse any of the goods or services offered herein this publication.
Copyright 2012 by Diplomatic ConnectionsAll rights reserved.
Cover photo credits: Prince William, Duchess Catherine and Prince Harry, LOCOG via Getty Images; Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain, Bryn Lennon/Getty Images; Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, Streeter Lecka/Getty Images; Zara Phillips, Cameron Spencer/Getty Images; Conor Dwyer, Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens & Ryan Lochte, Ezra Shaw/Getty Images; The Hay-Adams, Chef Schaffrath, Christophe Avril/Diplomatic Connections; Robert Harting of Germany, Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images; Tom Slingsby of Australia, Clive Mason/Getty Images; Usain Bolt of Jamaica, Harry How/Getty Images; CDR Dr. David Wilcox, Embassy of Canada, Christophe Avril/Diplomatic Connections; Gabrielle Douglas, Ezra Shaw/Getty Images; Kevin Mayer of France, Michael Steele/Getty Images; Mitt Romney, Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images; President Obama, Official White House photo by Pete Souza.
PAGE 85
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FrOM BISHKEK TO BEIjINGPAGE 76
APArTMENTS and HOUSINGAshton Judiciary Square UDR 16Crescent Falls Church UDR 16Dittmar Realty – Courtland Towers 17Dittmar Realty – Randolph Towers 17
AUTOMOTIVE - CArS and LIMOUSINE SErVICESAdmiral Leasing 4BMW of Rockville 2Car Services – VIP Gold Car 94Jim Coleman Cadillac 6Jim Coleman Toyota 7
COMMErCIAL rEAL ESTATEULM Holding Corporation 1
COMMUNICATIONSInTouch USA Wireless Communications 8
Diplomatic Connections reception, October 30th, 2012 at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, D.C. 18Diplomatic Connections reception, March 12th, 2013 at The Hay-Adams Washington, D.C. 20Diplomatic Connections reception, April 11th, 2013 at The Madison Washington, D.C. 22
EDUCATION – INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS Archbishop Riordan High School 9 British School of Washington 91 Florida Air Academy 12 Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles 11 Marvelwood School 12 Miss Porter’s School 9 Pinecrest School 12 Sandy Spring Friends School 10 The Kew-Forest School 10 Trinity – Pawling School 11
ENTErTAINMENT[The] Embassy Series 13
FUrNITUrEFurniture – RocheBobois 8
HOTELS, DINING and ACCOMMODATIONSDouble Tree Hotel by Hilton Hotel Bethesda – Washington, D.C. 73[The] Fairfax at Embassy Row 61
Fairmont Washington, DC – Georgetown INSIDE BACK COVErFour Seasons 5[The] Hay-Adams 21, 40 - 51InterContinental – Willard InterContinental Washington, DC 60InterContinental – Cleveland Clinic 29[The] Madison 23[The] Mandarin Oriental Washington, D.C. 19 [The] Peninsula Beverly Hills INSIDE FrONT COVErTrump International Hotel & Tower * Chicago 3
INVESTMENTU.S. Immigration Investment Center – Interview with Mahnaz Khazen 62
MEDICALCleveland Clinic 26 and Back CoverInterContinental Cleveland 29
PrOTOCOLProtocol Partners 15
TrAVEL, INSUrANCE, PASSPOrTS AND VISASAmtrak 96Insurance – Travel Insurance Center 14VFS Global 15
ArTICLESCanada – Interview with Medical Attaché CDR Dr. David Wilcox 30Cleveland Clinic 26Cyprus – Interview with Ambassador Anastadiades 68Election 2012 – The Presidential Race 36The Hay-Adams, Chef Schaffrath 46International Destinations, Bishkek to Beijing 76Investment – Interview with Mahnaz Khazen 62Niall Mellon Townships, Building Hopes and Homes 74Olympics – 85White House – New York Giants visit 52
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Wherever home is, patients who travel the globe to Cleveland Clinic for world-class
medical care will feel welcomed and confident. Over the past 90 years, Cleveland
Clinic has emerged as one of America’s most respected medical institutions.
U.S. News & World Report ranks it among the leading hospitals in America.
Destination: Cleveland Clinic
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Patients First: The GuidinG PrinciPle of cleveland clinic
Cleveland Clinic puts patients first with 2,800 physicians and scientists in 120 subspecialties, caring for every disease and disorder of the body. With the most up-to-date facilities (almost 70 percent of its buildings have been constructed in the past 20 years), Cleveland Clinic has 1,400 hospital beds and 50 buildings on a 166-acre campus in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland Clinic’s Heart & Vascular Institute is “America’s Best” (Readers’ Digest) and has been ranked No. 1 in America for 18 years by U.S. News & World Report. And we are now No. 1 in Urology and Nephrology care, which are among the 14 Cleveland Clinic specialties ranked in the Top 10 in the nation, including Digestive Diseases; Ear, Nose and Throat; Gastroenterology; Rheumatology; Gynecology; Orthopedics; Pulmonology; Geriatrics; Neurology/Neurosurgery; Cancer and Ophthalmology.
advanTaGes of cleveland clinic care
Cleveland Clinic combines compassionate, attentive care with outstanding medical outcomes. It offers the most advanced diagnoses, treatments and technology in an environment that encourages medical innovation and breakthroughs in medical research. Cleveland Clinic physicians are among the best in the world. They meet the highest standards of their profession, and many are leaders in their national and international medical societies.
We are organized around patient-centered institutes that concentrate the talents and energies of leading physicians and researchers on the most difficult challenges of specific diseases and body systems. Cleveland Clinic successfully treats hundreds of patients who have been turned away by other medical centers because their cases are too risky or complex. We offer the most difficult surgeries, with the latest minimally invasive and robotic alternatives, as well medical options that make surgery unnecessary for many patients.
Thousands of patients come to Cleveland Clinic for second opinions — often resulting in new, more accurate diagnoses, better treatments, or finding that no treatment is necessary at all.
Teamwork and collaboration are Cleveland Clinic watchwords. Patients have the attention of multiple specialists who discuss cases, compare observations and develop the best possible treatment plan for every patient.
Patient Service Specialists work one-on-one with patients and families, serving as advocates and ambassadors. They accompany patients to medical appointments, interpret physicians’ instructions and connect patients with Cleveland Clinic’s financial counselors.
Meanwhile, Cleveland Clinic understands the stress associated with travel and serious medical conditions, and works to provide a nurturing, healing environment. The Miller Pavilion Rooftop Plaza offers a serene escape with views of the Cleveland skyline. Our Healing Services and Wellness teams provide patients with massage and other touch therapies, art and music therapy, and yoga classes. While waiting for appointments, patients and families can also enjoy a tour of Cleveland Clinic’s extensive art collection. (Audio tours are available in English, Spanish and Arabic.) And pastoral and spiritual counselors are available 24/7 for people of all religious backgrounds; others who wish for privacy can visit Cleveland Clinic’s Meditation Chapel or Islamic Prayer Room for silent prayers or reflection.
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Global PaTienT services: here To Guide
Cleveland Clinic offers a world of healthcare services to patients from more than 120 nations and all 50 United States. Patients who come to us from outside the United States have access to a special suite of advantages we call Global Patient Services — whether they are here for a day, a week or a month.
What is Global Patients Services? In the middle of Cleveland Clinic’s busy medical activities, Global Patient Services is a friendly beacon for patients from faraway places. It’s like the concierge of a fine hotel. To begin with, Global Patient Services helps get you to Cleveland and helps you find a place to stay. It can make travel arrangements (including airline dis-counts when available) and hotel reservations. Beyond that, it can help you with your medical, personal and family needs. Global Patient Services facilitates your medical appointments. It will provide interpreters, arrange necessary transportation from your hotel, and direct you to restaurants, car rentals and other services. It can help you and your family find things to do and places to shop, and guide you to restaurants and cultural activities in and around Northeast Ohio.
After you have returned home, Global Patient Services is available to help coordinate follow-up appointments, facilitate communications with your Cleveland Clinic physicians, and answer any non-medical questions you may have.
“We understand that you may be anxious in time
of illness, far from home, perhaps where you don’t
speak the language. Cleveland Clinic does everything
to assure your health, comfort and convenience.”
~ William Ruschhaupt, MD, Chairman, Global Patient Services
a Global diPlomaT
Cleveland Clinic is experienced in international diplomacy and protocol, having welcomed world leaders for 85 years. We work closely with government health ministries, embassies and missions to provide patient care for citizens of many nations under a variety of government-sponsored or private plans. Cleveland Clinic is renowned for security, discretion and cultural competence.
advanced TechnoloGy
Few international medical centers can match Cleveland Clinic’s access to new technology and passion for innovation.And we are leaders in more than minimally invasive and robotic technology. An important part of delivering a personal experience to patients is providing tools to help them access medical care, electronic records and online resources. Some of our most popular online tools include:
• Mychart®, which allows patients to connect to their personal health information 24 hours a day.
• Myconsult, which provides online medical second opinions from Cleveland Clinic specialists for more than 1,000 diagnoses.
• Drconnect, which helps physicians stay updated in real time on patients’ treatment progress.
Cleveland Clinic has stepped up its emphasis on the patient experience — remaking itself as a “four-star” provider of comfort, convenience, and patient and visitor amenities. The emphasis is on courtesy, attention and compassionate care. This shows itself in every facility and every encounter — right down to a new patient gown that preserves modesty and dignity for all patients in the clinical setting.
Wherever home is for patients, they will find that Cleveland Clinic extends warm hospitality and services to accommodate their individual needs while they receive outstanding medical care. That is why more than 3,000 patients from around the world traveled to Cleveland Clinic in 2011.
“We are always striving to extend our reach to patients,” says Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Delos Cosgrove, MD. “Cleveland Clinic’s outstanding national and international reputation and its creative alliances expand patient access to services and strengthen our mission of patient care, research and education.”
To learn more, visit clevelandclinic.org.Photography: Stephen Travarca, Russell Lee, Tom Merce, Yu Kwan Lee
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Dr. David Wilcox is a man of many talents. He holds
the rank of Commander in the Canadian Navy. He is a
medical doctor trained to work under some of the most
adverse circumstances on and above the Earth, not to men-
tion under the seas. He is currently assigned to a diplomatic
function as Health Services Attaché with the Canadian
Defense Forces Liaison Staff at the Embassy of Canada to
the United States in Washington, D.C.
When you first meet Cdr. Dr. David Wilcox he is all
starched, sharply creased white summer uniform of the
Canadian Navy with the manners expected of an officer and
a gentleman. But that is the last thing about Dr. Wilcox that
is starchy. Behind the professional demeanor is a spirited
smile, a twinkle in the eye and a gentle sense of humor as
well as a deep sense of morality and a commitment to caring
for people by protecting their heath, often under the most
extreme conditions.
Whatever else he is, it is clear that David Wilcox is always
a doctor first, a naval officer second and a diplomat third. Like
the soft-serve ice cream machines of summer, however, Wilcox
is really all of these things swirled together. He is a medical
doctor serving in the Canadian military, but he is first and fore-
most a doctor who serves humanity. He is a medical diplomat
whose diplomacy serves always to spread medical knowledge
and to apply that knowledge as widely as possible.
A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Wilcox came to medi-
cine by a slightly circuitous route. He completed a bachelor
Canada’s CDR. Dr. David Wilcox Takes Doctoring to Extremes —In Space, Under Water and in War ZonesJames A. Winsh ip . Ph .D.
of physics degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax in 1980,
but followed that with a year of an MBA program at Queen’s
University. Convinced that business was not the direction
he wanted to pursue, Wilcox turned his attention to medi-
cal school, but first he had to complete some of the biology
courses required for medical school admission. That led to
a two-year honours in biophysics graduate program before
entering medical school at Dalhousie University, where he
completed his medical degree in 1987.
His father was in the military and introduced Wilcox to
the military’s Medical Officer Training Program. “You enroll
in that program after your second year of medical school,”
he recalls. “Then, once you’re accepted into the program,
after successfully completing your medical degree and the
required internship, you owe the Canadian Forces Health
Services four years of active duty.” Dr. Wilcox owed the mili-
tary four years of active duty service, but he has stayed for 25
years. Why?
His first posting was with a tank regiment in Germany.
That was followed by service in northern Iraq following the
liberation of Kuwait and the establishment of the “No Fly
Zones” (1991). By then, he says, “the hook was set.” “I had
had two years in Germany, where I saw the Berlin Wall come
down, and I had been part of what was called ‘Operation As-
sist’ working in refugee camps in the Kurdish regions of Iraq.
Those experiences led me to stay in the military.”
That decision was followed by a return to service in
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Germany followed by a variety of postings in Canada. Those
experiences were followed by two years in Pensacola, Florida,
where Dr. Wilcox completed a residency in Aerospace Medi-
cine. He was also deployed for six months as the Division Sur-
geon for a multi-national force in Bosnia. Beyond his residency
in aerospace medicine, Dr. Wilcox has completed the basic and
advanced diving medicine courses, a tropical medicine course,
a nuclear emergency response management course, and an
advanced radiation medicine course. He also has wide experi-
ence in disaster management situations, including flood and
hurricane response. By the standards of his training, exploring
diplomatic frontiers might seem tame.
Summing up his career to date, Cdr. Dr. Wilcox enthuses
that, “Every day is an adventure. That’s why I love coming
to work.” That enthusiasm carries over to a more sobering
thought. “It’s a dangerous world we live in — both from man-
made disasters and terrorist attacks as well as natural phenom-
ena like the consequences of global warming or the emergence
of new strains of infectious disease. That kind of environment
means that there’s always a need for medical skills.” He might
have added that there’s always a need for concerned human be-
ings like him who offer their skills to the world.
Dr. Wilcox was kind enough to talk at length with
Diplomatic Connections about the evolving nature of military
medicine, about his personal experiences in the field, and
about the doors to improved care and better understanding
across conflicts that medical diplomacy can open.
Diplomatic Connections: What exactly is your role here
in Washington? Why is there a health attaché as part of the
embassy staff?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: That’s best explained by describing what
I do. I am double-hatted as both the Canadian Forces medi-
cal liaison officer and the health services attaché. As medi-
cal liaison officer, I’m tasked with facilitating the health care
of about 2,300 Canadians. There are about 750 uniformed
Canadians in the U.S. They’re either posted here, involved
in a training course or on exercise. And then there are their
dependents, roughly 1,550 of them. My job is to help them
navigate through the complicated insurance system.
In Canada, we have what’s called the “gatekeeper sys-
tem.” You can only access a specialist if you’re referred by a
family physician. I act as a virtual family physician to
quarterback care for our forces and their families serving in
the United States.
Diplomatic Connections: Do you do any direct medical
treatment, in your present role?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: I am not dealing with a lot of coal-face
(hands-on) treatments, but I am helping to coordinate and
focus on-going treatment. One of the things that we want to
be very sensitive to is that we do not want to be burdensome
to the American healthcare system. We feel it’s a privilege to
be working with U.S. forces, networking with them, acting
as liaison officers or exchange officers. We do not want to be
seen as medical tourists or a burden to U.S. facilities.
Diplomatic Connections: Could we turn to the second
of your two hats for a moment — your role as health services
attaché? Do you work directly, for example, with institutions
like the Centers for Disease Control or with other American
health institutions, research institutions?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: I serve in five areas. One is coordinating
conferences here, another is sitting on committees, then it’s
outreach, liaison and data monitoring.
The first of the principle committees that I’m on is
JPMPG — Joint Preventive Medicine Policy Group. It’s a
wonderful example of the U.S. military achieving joint-ness.
All five branches are represented there — the U.S. Army,
the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marines, the U.S. Coast Guard
and the U.S. Navy. And their mandate is to standardize all
preventive medicine issues. They’ll look at their approach to
malaria, their approach to various diseases or their approach
to periodic health assessment. And we [the Canadians] are
invited so that when we’re tasked with the defense of North
America and we’re going to be partnering very closely with
U.S. forces, then it’s critical that we are fully interoperable.
We want, as far as is possible, to standardize our approach
with your approach in dealing with these various medical
conditions.
Diplomatic Connections: Is that strictly the United
States and Canada involved or are there European forces
involved as well?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: That committee is just the U.S. and Can-
ada. So, we do have a privileged platform. We’re the only
foreign mission that’s included in that consultation process.
But another committee is the Quintipartite Medical Intel-
ligence Committee. On that committee we have the Ameri-
cans, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders
and the British. That committee is intended to share medical
intelligence on things like chemical and biological weapons,
the effect of various explosive devices on the human body
or new illnesses that are being encountered by troops in the
field. We try to disseminate that information and possible
responses to the threat as widely as possible.
Diplomatic Connections: Beyond these committee
assignments, can you give us some specific examples of your
other functions?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: In terms of outreach, I frequently give
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lectures on Canada’s national health care system so that audi-
ences will understand how it functions and how it is differ-
ent from the health care-health insurance system here in the
United States.
Then there is what I call data-mining, which is really
sharing best practices going in both directions. To that
end, I’m a member of the Health Portfolio Network. That’s
a federal agency in Canada that meets quarterly or more
frequently depending upon what the issue is. But, almost on
a weekly basis, our office will go to meetings off-site. Then,
if there’s information that we think relevant to Canada, we’ll
do a synopsis and send it back to whatever agency in Canada
seems most relevant.
I also liaise with the surgeons general of the various
American military branches. And, I facilitate conferences
here at the embassy dealing with various topics of interest to
military medicine.
Diplomatic Connections: In fact, there’s a conference
coming up at the embassy that will deal specifically with
PTSD — post traumatic stress syndrome, isn’t there?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: It’s broader than that. The September
conference is a mental health symposium. The attempt is to
bring best practices to light under the broad umbrella of op-
erational stress injuries. One sub-set of that would be PTSD,
but it includes many other concerns. That will be a one-day,
full-on event at the ministerial/secretarial level. A follow-on
meeting for staff members will try to begin implementing the
recommendations that were adopted on the preceding day.
Diplomatic Connections: Will this conference focus
only on serving members of the military, or does it cover
families as well?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: That’s a niche that Canada has developed
for itself — facilitating countries coming together to discuss
common health problems. Just recently we had a big sympo-
sium in Canada on best practices for suicide prevention, one
on traumatic brain injury, and one on family violence related
to operational stress injuries and what are the evidence-based
best practices for trying to mitigate family violence. So, we
certainly do deal with family-related issues.
And, also, a lot of the things that we’re working on —
suicide prevention, PTSD and mild traumatic brain injuries
— absolutely have civilian applications as well.
Diplomatic Connections: Are there health attachés in
other Canadian embassies around the world?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: No, this is the only Canadian embassy
that has a health services attaché.
Diplomatic Connections: What are the qualifications for
this position?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: They want somebody in this position
that has some breadth of experience. So, they are looking for
someone who has served in all three environments — Army,
Navy and Air Force.
In the Canadian system, the medical branch is not
owned by any one of the three services. We get tasked out
to support the various services, not just one of them. I’ve
been lucky in my career that I’ve spent almost equal amounts
of time with the Army, Air Force, and Navy. And that’s
something that they look for in selecting someone for this
position. Also, they look for someone who has a good bit
of experience in the field. It is a bit of a reward for the time
you’ve served and the experience you’ve gained.
Diplomatic Connections: Since you’re tasked out to
the various services at different times in your career, whose
uniform do you wear?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: Believe it or not, when we sign-up they
just ask us what uniform we want to wear. For the dental
branch, they’re all Army. But, what we try to do so that we
bond and establish an esprit de corps with whatever ser-
vice we’re supporting, we wear their work dress. So I wear
a flight suit when I’m with the Air Force. I wear combats
when I’m with the Army. And, I wear the appropriate naval
uniform when I’m serving with the Navy.
Diplomatic Connections: Please tell us a bit about your
training in aerospace medicine.
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: When I did my aerospace training they
taught me how to fly. The theory was that you can’t do the
human factor aspect of an aircraft accident if you don’t have
a basic understanding of what the pilot is doing. So, they
taught me how to fly, which I really found fun. I did about
10 hours of Cessna training and about 30 hours in a T-34C
turboprop. They want you to go solo but they don’t want
you to become a pilot or achieve licensure. They just want
you to know how to take-off and land. I didn’t get to solo
because I only had a month to do it, but I was taking off and
landing on my own.
There are four areas in aerospace medicine. We’re taught
to do aircraft accident investigation. We’re taught to develop
and carry out protocols for medical evacuation by air. We’re
taught to do various kinds of countermeasures to protect
crews against sudden depressurization, cosmic radiation
and the effects of weightlessness. And then the last one is to
assess their mission fitness.
Diplomatic Connections: You were involved in working
with the astronauts and the space shuttle program as well,
weren’t you?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: One of the special moments in train-
34 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
ing was doing the staff function for space shuttle launches,
supporting shuttle retrievals, and working in mission control
in Houston. When I was there, we got to meet all of the
astronauts. We did their medical care and we were each
involved in a project. On each shuttle mission there’s one as-
tronaut who is designated the senior flight medical officer, so
my project was to teach them how to do a neurologic exam.
There are amazing things happening with telemedicine now
but the one thing you lack in that circumstance is the doctor’s
sense of touch.
Diplomatic Connections: You’ve trained deep diving
medicine and nuclear medicine as well. Do you ever take the
easy way out?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: They’re all interrelated. I came back
from my training in aerospace medicine and worked in that
field. But, at that time, after a 10-year hiatus, Canada was
reintroducing submarines with the Victoria class. That meant
that we in the medical field had to catch-up. We had lost
most of our corporate knowledge of submarine medicine.
I’m not sure whether it was because of my background in
physics, but I was asked to get that program going. That
worked into developing an underwater medicine program.
Most of the advanced courses that I went on were in
response to recognized needs. It all happened sequentially.
Working with submariners, for instance, led to me pursuing a
training program in advanced radiation medicine.
Diplomatic Connections: What are some of the medi-
cal issues you encounter in these unique environments in
the military — deep sea operations, the presence of nuclear
materials, high altitude for example?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: The issues are the same in space and
undersea. It’s just a continuum. Everything is related to
pressure. I’ve gone to a number of conferences on undersea
medical issues, and NASA attends the same conferences.
We have diesel submarines, and because they’re not nuclear
powered we have many of the same problems that NASA
encounters. For example, we are both concerned with power
systems and oxygen generation and the presence of carbon
dioxide whether undersea or at altitude.
It really wasn’t that hard transitioning from aerospace to
the undersea community. As an advanced underwater medical
officer, I was taught how to treat people in hyperbaric cham-
bers. But, again, the space environment where they’re doing
a spacewalk they’re at risk for decompression — the bends —
just as much as undersea divers. If you do a spacewalk, you’re
at risk for nitrogen bubbles in the same way that a diver is. So,
the situations are a lot closer than you might think initially.
Diplomatic Connections: You have been deployed in
some of the world’s trouble spots, to say the least. What did
you learn from your experience in Northern Iraq, working in
the Kurdish dominated areas? How does an experience like
that change your approach to medicine?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: While I was deployed in Iraq, I was able
to see medical conditions that most doctors would probably
never see in normal circumstances. I was in a position where
I saw not only Canadian forces but a large number of Iraqi
civilians who were living under very adverse conditions. This
was an eye-opener for me. I saw a lot of illnesses that I’d never
seen before in my life. I saw such things as scurvy and rickets
and beriberi that most doctors only see in textbooks. And the
trauma that I saw really made me self-sufficient because up in
the mountains I did not have an x-ray machine or lab facilities.
You really had to sharpen your clinical skills.
What it does give you is perspective. When I saw chil-
dren de-hydrated, I saw what the consequences of extreme
dehydration really look like. That knowledge allows me to
assure a mother whose child has vomited once that dehydra-
tion is not a problem in that circumstance. In Iraq, I saw
kids die of typhoid. It really gave me a perspective on the
continuum of illness for certain things. It showed firsthand
what the extremes of illness can look like. And, it really
made me appreciate the quality of life and the quality of
medical care in North America.
Diplomatic Connections: You were also deployed in
Bosnia. What can you tell us about your experiences there?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: Odd as it might seem to say, that was
another wonderful experience. I was division surgeon for a
multinational unit in the southwest, and I was stationed in
Banja Luka working with Dutch, British and Canadian forces.
So, I was in the senior position. That position required me
to develop my diplomatic skills because I was in a position
where I had no authority but I was tasked with developing
consensus. We had tuberculosis, measles and other diseases
present that are — under normal circumstances — quite
easily controlled. Developing a consensus among those three
countries, which had very different approaches to public
health problems, was an education.
Trying to deal with the Serbs and the Croats and the
Muslims in the context of a high level of violence proved
challenging as well. I found that medicine is a nice wedge
to start talks because it’s always perceived as benign and it is
perceived as providing added value.
Diplomatic Connections: In that situation, medicine
becomes a kind of diplomatic wedge that opens doors.
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: It does. It’s a very effective diplomatic
tool. I think that it’s been shown time and time again that
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when people get to know each other they realize that they
have more things in common than they have differences. I
think medicine is able to do that initially, especially from a
military perspective. Medical issues represent safer, more
benign ground than some other potential issues.
Diplomatic Connections: You and the Canadian Health
Services have lived through a time when you were seeing in
battlefield conditions outrages to the human body that you
wouldn’t normally see in civilian life. How does the military
learn from those experiences — extreme wounds, burns, in-
juries from a variety of explosive devices that are improvised
but nonetheless deadly? How do you respond to those new
situations? How do you learn from these experiences and
preserve that learning?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: One of the things that we do is to try to
learn from every unfortunate fatality. During any autopsy, part
of the autopsy is to look at the effectiveness or ineffectiveness
of personal protective equipment. We have a group in Toronto
that will make instantaneous recommendations. They will
look at battlefield casualties and develop almost real time rec-
ommendations for ways to protect troops more effectively.
There is an absolute, stood up lessons learned cell whose
mandate is to be constantly updating both our equipment
and our procedures. There’s been a huge explosion in the
amount of research going into trauma treatments. Now we
have “Quick Clots” to stop bleeding more quickly and ef-
fectively, and a single-handed tourniquet for tactical combat
application has been developed for battlefield first aid.
Diplomatic Connections: Could you tell us just a little
bit about the humanitarian operations carried out by the
Canadian military? In some cases they grow out of natural
disasters or out of battlefield deployments, but in other cases
are quite separate from them and become a kind of diplo-
matic outreach as well.
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: There’s always a medical component to
all of these disaster responses. What the military brings to
the table is the ability to deploy ourselves quickly and with a
self-sufficient capacity. If we want to deploy a medical capa-
bility, we don’t have to go to someone else to ask for canvas,
and shelter, and communications, and security, and food.
We have all of these capacities pre-packaged and ready for
deployment. And, we don’t have to be taken away from our
day jobs. That sort of response is our day job.
Diplomatic Connections: You have a self-sufficiency ca-
pability that almost no one else has. In a disaster, if hospitals
have been damaged, you can come in with a field operation
that comes with operating rooms, and generators, and every-
thing else that’s needed to support that.
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: The Public Health Agency of Canada
does have “canned” hospitals in what is called the National
Emergency Stockpile System, but what we come with is peo-
ple who can be transported anywhere in the world and do
the job. We can come into Haiti with a unique capability that
we call DART — Disaster Assistance Response Team — that
is absolutely mandated to do this sort of disaster response.
They’re equipped and trained to go in on short notice to
respond to disasters wherever they might occur.
Diplomatic Connections: What do you think is the
impact and value of such humanitarian operations?
Cdr. Dr. Wilcox: My own personal feeling is that it was
almost as worthwhile as building a school. If we treated a
mother for cancer, her immediate family and a second family
are very appreciative. They know that that was you — a
Canadian doctor — who did that. I think that the goodwill
and winning the hearts and minds is very effectively done by
treating local patients. That’s one of the things that Canada
tries to do wherever we go. And, it protects us. The locals
actually step in to protect us from harm because of the good
will we’ve built up in the communities. People will tell you
there’s an imminent attack or some other danger.
It’s been a real recruiting tool as well. For a long time in
the medical branch we were at 50 percent of our authorized
physician strength, but now we’re up to 100 percent physician
strength. We had some other recruiting programs, but these
operational deployments where Canadians could see that we
were actually doing good, in combination with humanitarian
assistance, have been by far our most effective recruiting efforts.
Diplomatic Connections: Commander Wilcox, it’s been a
marvelous discussion. It is interesting to see medicine as one
more tool of diplomacy, and — as you suggest — a very im-
portant tool in opening doors where they might otherwise be
closed to politics and trade. At a very human level medicine is
less politicized and more universal than traditional diplomacy.
That’s an exciting thing to be able to lift up for our audience. n
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It should come as no surprise that presidential
campaigns do not produce the most enlighten-
ing discussions of foreign policy. The on-the-
ground realities of actual foreign policy dilemmas
do not succumb easily to the “sound bite” rhetoric
of a presidential campaign and the stream of televi-
sion commercials and social media that has become
campaigning in the 21st century. Nei-
ther does a presidential foreign policy
record easily compress into thematic
consistency. Presidents learn on the
job, especially in foreign policy.
That presidential learning curve
imposes a degree of realism and
practicality on every sitting Presi-
dent, but it also opens every Presi-
dent to charges of failing to live up
to campaign promises that are, inevitably, heavy
on patriotism, nationalism, defense preparedness
(read “spending”), and promotion of core Ameri-
can values in the global stage. Add to that the
foreign policy “surprises” — the terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that
confronted President George W. Bush or the “Arab
spring” that challenged President Obama’s continu-
ation of long-held relationships in the Middle East
— with which Presidents must cope. The result is
a campaign focused more on the atmospherics of
foreign policy than any specific policy initiatives,
more on the past than on the future.
It is a commonplace of American presidential
politics that foreign policy plays only a limited
role in the campaigns and in the voters’ decision
process. Add to that, the long tradition of “politics
stops at the water’s edge” and the supposed tradi-
tion of bipartisanship in foreign
policy, and you have an election
formula that suggests foreign
policy and national security are
less polarizing as campaign themes
than are critical domestic questions
like the federal budget deficit and
taxes, the future of entitlement
programs, and the complex mix
of cultural and social issues that
claims to define America.
While there’s no doubt that jobs and the
economy will play the central role in November’s
presidential contest, it is impossible to separate do-
mestic, foreign policy and national security issues
in today’s complex global economy. Two extended
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as intensified
anti-terror efforts around the world have helped
to create the budget deficits facing and constrain-
ing the United states. Financing that debt has
opened a door to China having a substantive role
Ol iver Dowel l L loyd
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
in the stability of the American economy just as
global trade has dramatically expanded China’s
international economic role. The competing needs
for energy resources and for a meaningful response
to global warming have turned energy policies into
a global free-for-all of exploration in unexpected
places, searches for environmentally-friendly
technologies, and a yin-yang debate over the future
of nuclear energy as states such as Iran and North
Korea seek to shore up their sovereignty by acquir-
ing nuclear weapons and the debate over the safety
of nuclear power generation is rejoined.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney face-off as
presidential candidates in an atmosphere where
foreign policy discussions are unavoidable because
global economic interdependence blurs the lines of
sovereignty and transforms domestic economic dif-
ficulties into international economic dilemmas. At
the same time, foreign policy and national security
initiatives have immediate economic ramifications
that will dramatically impact the federal budget.
Ironically, most presidential campaigns claim to
focus on domestic issues and the economy, yet it is
in foreign policy where the President has the most
freedom of action and where presidential actions,
freed from the constraints of a diverse, deliberative
and divided Congress are most consequential.
Romney and Obama separately addressed the
Veterans of Foreign Wars convention this summer
and sought to clarify the stylistic differences in their
approaches to foreign policy. Romney characterized
the Obama years as “a time of declining influence
and missed opportunity.” “The President’s policies,”
Romney insisted, “have made it harder to recover
from the greatest recession in 70 years … exposed
the military to cuts that no one can justify …
compromised our national security secrets … and
in dealings with other nations, given trust where it
is not earned, insult where it is not deserved, and
apology where it is not due.” President Obama,
according to the Romney view, has both failed
America and failed to deliver on his promises to the
American people.
Obama, by way of contrast, recalled the world
situation that he inherited from the George W. Bush
administration. “Four years ago I stood before you
at a time of great challenge for our nation. We were
engaged in two wars. Al Qaeda was entrenched in
their safe havens in Pakistan. Many of our alli-
ances were frayed. Our standing in the world had
suffered. We were in the worst recession of our life-
times. Around the world, some questioned whether
the United States had the capacity to lead.”
His record, the President asserted, was a record
of promises made and kept. “I pledged to take the
fight to our enemies, and renew our leadership in the
world. As President, that’s what I’ve done. I pledged
to end the war in Iraq honorably, and that’s what
we’ve done. I pledged to make it a priority to take
out the terrorists who had attacked us on 9/11. I
said that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights,
we would act to keep America safe — even if it
meant going into Pakistan. Since I took office, we’ve
worked with our allies and our partners to take out
more top al Qaeda leaders than any time since 9/11.
Osama bin Laden will never threaten America again,
and al Qaeda is on the road to defeat.”
Romney was quick to remind his VFW audi-
ence, however, of a string of alleged Obama fail-
ures, broken promises and half-hearted efforts to
influence the course of global politics. President
Obama, he declared, has brought us to a point
where, “We are just months away from an arbitrary,
across-the-board budget reduction that would
saddle the military with a trillion dollars in cuts,
severely shrink our force structure, and impair our
ability to meet and deter threats.” [NOTE: The
so-called deficit cliff to which Romney points is the
product of a messy, last-minute Congressional com-
promise in August 2011, which agreed to raise the
debt ceiling in exchange for the creation of a deficit
reduction “super-committee.” That super-commit-
tee subsequently found it impossible to reach any
bi-partisan agreement on deficit reduction, and was
confronted with the default position of draconian
budget cuts.]
The Romney litany of criticism continued.
“The threat of radical Islamic terrorism persists. The
threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation
is ever-present.” He charged the Obama administra-
tion with leaking details of top-secret operations for
partisan political purposes, conduct that Romney
described as “contemptible.” This administration,
Romney insisted, has sacrificed missile defenses “as
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 2 39
a unilateral concession to the Russian government.” It has
“faltered when the Iranian people were looking for support
in their struggle against the ayatollahs.” It has “derided” and
“undermined” the policies of “one of our finest friends” —
Israel. The President, Romney insists, is playing politics with
the Afghan War by engaging in “a politically-timed retreat.”
To take perhaps the
most prominent example
of a situation where policy
differences between the two
candidates seem rhetori-
cally dramatic but turn out
to be virtually non-existent,
compare their VFW state-
ments on Afghanistan.
President Obama ac-
knowledged “that there are
those who argued against
a timeline for ending this
war,” but “I felt it was
important that the Ameri-
can people — and our men
and women in uniform
— know of our plan to
end this war responsibly.
By the end of this sum-
mer, more than 30,000
of our troops will have
come home. Next year the
Afghans will take the lead
for their own security. In
2014, the transition will be
complete.”
Contrast this with
Romney’s stated policy on
Afghanistan. “As President,
my goal in Afghanistan will
be to complete a success-
ful transition to Afghan
security forces by the end
of 2014. I will evaluate
conditions on the ground and solicit the best advice of our
military commanders. And I will affirm that my duty is not
to my political prospects, but to the security of the nation.”
Is there a difference between the two candidates here? Yes
and no. Both refer to a transition to Afghan security forces by
2014. Obama says that transition will be complete. Romney
says the same thing but in language that is slightly more nu-
anced and implies a tentativeness (“my goal will be . . .”) that
allows voters to read their own opinions into his statement.
Scholars frequently talk about the “fog of war” — the
uncertainties created by limited battlefield information and
the often chaotic flow of events. Looking at the Romney and
Obama statements before
the VFW Convention
provides one of the few
side-by-side comparisons
of their foreign policy
stances and a perfect
example of the “fog of
campaigning.”
Here is the reality and
the frustration of presi-
dential campaigns and
foreign policy debates.
The words and im-
ages of the foreign policy
campaign are designed to
tap wells of emotion and
patriotic devotion, not
to inform serious policy
debates. The policy
formulations are designed
to create the appearance
of concreteness while
leaving wide latitude for
interpretation, the better
to attract a wide range
of voters. The “fuzzy”
positions taken by the
candidates are intended
to imply the candidate’s
thinking but never to
limit future presidential
options. And none of this
answers what may be the
most consequential ques-
tion of all: who will make
up the new President’s foreign policy team? n
For a direct comparison of the Romney and
Obama foreign policy positions issue by issue
please see the Diplomatic Connections website:
www.diplomaticconnections.com
It is a commonplace of American presidential politics that
foreign policy plays only a limited role in the campaigns and in the voters’ decision process. Add to that, the long tradition
of “politics stops at the water’s edge” and the supposed tradition
of bipartisanship in foreign policy, and you have an election formula that suggests foreign
policy and national security are less polarizing as campaign
themes than are critical domestic questions like the federal
budget deficit and taxes, the future of entitlement programs, and the complex mix of cultural
and social issues that claims to define America.
40 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
The Hay-Adams Hotel is a quietly
honored treasure at the heart of Wash-ington, D.C. Nestled between the presiden-tial staff at the White House and the power brokers at K Street lobbying and law firms, sandwiched between legislators on Capitol Hill and bureaucrats’ agencies stretching along The Mall, The Hay-Adams is a fascinat-ing piece of Washington’s history and an essential piece of Washington’s pres-ent. It evokes the elegance of an earlier
An IslAnd of luxury At the Center of Power:Where History Surrounds
and Where History Is Madeera in Washington, combines that aura of history with the power realities of the national capital’s present, and completes the package with state-of-the-art facilities that assure the hotel’s “connected-
ness” with the global future. Often described as a boutique hotel, The Hay-Adams offers superb accommo-dations and exceptional amenities to its guests. Because of the building’s historic provenance, it has an intimacy that is conducive to providing outstanding guest
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 2 41
42 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
discussion of art, literature and politics. That tradition of warm
hospitality, hosting leaders of government, business and the arts
from around the world, and the open exchange of ideas is carried
on by The Hay-Adams today in its authors’ luncheons which
bring historians, journalists and novelists together with the pub-
lic to discuss their works over a three-course meal and wine.
John Hay was President Abraham Lincoln’s personal secre-
tary and wrote an extensive biography of Lincoln following the
President’s assassination. Hay served as Assistant Secretary of
State in the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes (1878) and
was named as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1897
when William McKinley became President. He subsequently
served as Secretary of State under both Presidents McKinley
and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay negotiated the Treaty of Paris of
1898, which ended the Spanish-American War, negotiated the
treaties that made possible the building of the Panama Canal
and shaped the so-called Open Door Policy, which pressed
China to allow equal access to all the major imperial powers of
the day while pressing the foreign powers to guarantee China’s
care and unparalleled comfort in an atmosphere of total
discretion, security and privacy. Guest rooms and suites are
beautifully appointed and have been thoughtfully redesigned
to retain a feeling of traditional luxury while incorporating
the latest in-room technologies. Service here is unsurpassed.
Hotel staff go to great lengths to make certain that guests are
repeatedly welcomed, to understand guests, specific needs, to
facilitate every aspect of a visit to the nation’s capital and to
assure that guests have a haven of superior comfort for their
official business, historic tourism trips and family occasions.
The hotel takes its name from a leading 19th century
American statesman, John Hay, and one of that era’s literary
lights, Henry Adams — a direct descendant of Presidents John
Adams and John Quincy Adams. In 1884, these two men built
adjoining homes at the corner of 16th and H Streets. Hay and
his wife, Clara, and Adams and his wife, Clover, along with
noted geologist Clarence King became a close circle of friends
dubbed “The Five of Hearts.” Gatherings at their homes
quickly became one of Washington’s leading salons for the
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territorial integrity and central administration.
Henry Adams, grandson and great grandson of presidents,
was best known as a journalist, historian, novelist and social
critic. During the Civil War, his father, Charles Francis
Adams, was named United States Minister to the United
Kingdom, and Henry accompanied him as both personal
secretary and anonymous London correspondent for the
New York Times. Always a close student of history, Adams
was particularly interested in the dynamics of democracy as
an emergent concept that was protean in its possibilities for
good governance or, equally likely, in its possibilities for
corruption and submission to excesses of human prejudice.
The corner of 16th and H, in other words, had a tradi-
tion of being at the center of the nation’s political and social
discourse long before The Hay-Adams Hotel was built. After
the deaths of Adams and Hay, Washington developer Harry
Wardman bought and razed both homes in 1927.
In their place, he commissioned noted architect
Mirhan Mesrobian to design an Italian Renaissance-
styled apartment hotel on the site. The result is a
notable, if eclectic, edifice that offers an architec-
tural mélange of styles ranging from classical orders
to elements of Tudor, Elizabethan and Italianate
decorative arts. The overall mix is indicative of
Washington’s historic struggles with the architecture
of power, but remarkably it works to produce a
striking façade and a palatial interior feel that gener-
ates surprising warmth.
The continued success of The Hay-Adams is
based on three critical elements: intimacy in size,
style and service; absolute discretion in everything it
does, every meeting it hosts; and proximity to every
aspect of the Washington world — politics, diplo-
macy, business and society. The hotel provides not
only sumptuous guest rooms and suites, but it also
provides a range of private meeting and dining rooms
that can accommodate diplomatic negotiations,
business trainings and financial deliberations, media
opportunities and social gatherings.
Close to the heart of The Hay-Adams are its
culinary operations headed by Executive Chef Peter
Schaffrath. He is always referred to as “chef” . . .
never by his name. It is a title of great respect that
is spoken in hushed almost reverential terms by the
management and staff of The Hay-Adams Hotel.
Peter Schaffrath’s work may be awe-inspiring,
but — if so — it is because he has inspired those
around him with his low-key but commanding presence,
with his gentle but persistent sense of humor, and with his
exquisite but fresh and simple food presentations. He is not a
shooting star celebrity chef in the culinary heavens. Instead,
he is a culinary polar star — shining brightly in place, classi-
cally trained in Europe, familiar with the less formal tastes of
American cuisine, a traditionalist who is not mired in tradition,
an experimenter who likes new things but is not in thrall to
trendy kitchen techniques.
“Chef” Peter traces his interest in cooking back to his
mother’s kitchen in Germany. He recalls being intrigued with
all of her kitchen preparations and the delicious smells that
her efforts produced. “My mother,” he recalls,” actually put
me to work in the kitchen. We used to have a big garden,
and she taught me many things, not only cooking but grow-
ing our own vegetables and fruits.” His uncle ran a guest
44 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
house in the Black Forest where the budding chef spent his
summers and where, “I found that I liked the noise and the
routine of a kitchen on a daily basis, especially the prepara-
tions that went into cooking for more than just the family.”
Chef Peter Schaffrath began his professional training as
an apprentice at the Catering College in Aachen, Germany,
on the German-Dutch-Belgian border. “I was lucky enough
to learn my profession in a small hotel where you have to do
everything from preparing food, cooking, shopping and
even doing your own butchering.” After com-
pleting his apprenticeship, Chef Peter
began traveling. “That was actually
part of why I wanted to become a
chef. My first job took me to Zur-
ich, Switzerland, and then from there
I went to Geneva, then to Lausanne, and
from there to London.”
In London, Chef Schaffrath worked first at the Portman
Inter-Continental Hotel, where he served as Chef Entrem-
etier. Then he moved to the Hotel Inter-Continental London,
where he served as sous chef and executive sous chef. He
came to the United States in 1980 to serve as executive chef
at the Plaza of the Americas in Dallas, Texas. Ultimately
reaching the pinnacle of his career by joining The Hay-Adams
as executive chef in November 2001.
For this executive chef, management skills are a necessary
adjunct to the exceptional food created in his culinary imagi-
nation and by his teams of chefs and assistants working in the
multiple facilities he oversees. He recognizes a need to develop
staff and to take a hand in the training of a new generation
of chefs who combine technical skills with a love of superior
ingredients and a desire to prepare and present food in ways
that simultaneously represent a respect for tradition and an
awareness of changing tastes. Chef Schaffrath directs all culi-
nary activities at The Hay-Adams including banquet facilities,
in-room dining and the hotel’s variety of on-site restaurants.
The flagship fine dining experience at The Hay-Adams is
The Lafayette Room — a shimmering venue overlooking La-
fayette Park that sparkles with mirrors, sunlight and candles,
spotless silver and crystal, and superior service — with menu
offerings that are local, seasonal and fit for business dealings,
statecraft, or family special occasions. By morning The
Lafayette is a lusciously sun-drenched breakfast room. At
mid-day, it becomes a center of power lunches or a brief
respite from the demands of near-by offices and official
responsibilities. By evening, The Lafayette Room becomes a
center of elegant dining, quiet conversation, and exceptional
service to accompany equally exceptional menu selections,
all with the ambience of Washington’s past and the conversa-
tions that shape Washington’s future.
Quite different in ambience and reputation is Off the Re-
cord, voted one of the best hotel bars in America. This richly
paneled, sous-terre public room bills itself as the place “to be
seen and not heard” in Washington. It is the closest location
to the White House and the Executive Office Buildings for
the behind-the-scenes conversations between policymakers
and power brokers that are the lifeblood of the
nation’s capital. At the same time, Off the
Record has some of the best and most
creative cocktails in Washington, a
superior wine list as well as a superb
selection of bourbons, scotches and
cognacs to meet the most discriminating
tastes. The menu runs from appetizers to salads,
to light main courses followed by tantalizing desserts, and fea-
tures one of the best burgers in Washington, D.C., served on a
brioche roll and topped with caramelized onions, wild mush-
rooms, sugar-cured bacon and Gruyere cheese. Everything
here is done with discretion, except perhaps the appetites.
Literally topping off the dining experiences at The Hay-
Adams is the Top of the Hay, a recently added, glass-enclosed
roof-top facility that can accommodate a single large event or
be divided into separate rooms to accommodate several smaller
events. The views of official Washington to be had here are
spectacular with a panorama of power ranging from the White
House just across Lafayette Park, to the city’s key monuments,
to the waters of the Tidal Basin and the Potomac, to the Vir-
ginia skyline and the rolling countryside beyond. The Top of
the Hay has its own state-of-the-art kitchen facilities and staff
under the direction of Chef Schaffrath. Special events held here
can choose from existing menu items or work with the Chef to
develop unique offerings to suit the occasion, from corporate
dinners to wedding receptions and from intimate working
dinners to national day celebrations.
Despite his remarkably full schedule, The Hay-Adams
management was kind enough to share Chef Peter Schaffarth
for a wide-ranging and revealing discussion with Diplomatic
Connections and our readers. The conversation explores not
only the role of the Executive Chef at The Hay-Adams but
also changing culinary tastes and methods as well as the
unchanging essentials of culinary art. It offers a striking
look at what makes The Hay-Adams not only a superb
hotel but an absolute not-to-be-missed part of the most
authentic Washington experience.
46 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
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 2 47
JAMES A. WINSHIP, PHD
Diplomatic Connections: Peter, your title
is executive chef. Do you get to cook at all,
or are you primarily managing the staff, the
facilities and the food preparation?
Chef Schaffrath: I am one of the few ex-
ecutive chefs who is really hands-on. I have
been that way since I started this profession.
I am me. I can never compare myself with
any other great or good chef. I just enjoy
being hands-on, and that’s what I really do
well. Obviously there are management tasks
that are required — menu planning, payrolls,
work schedules, meetings and future events
to plan. There’s meeting guests as well. We
have lots of weddings here, and I make it a
point to meet the mother and the bride and
the groom so that we can select menus and go
through tastings. That’s really my responsibil-
ity. Obviously, we have beautiful facilities —
the Lafayette restaurant, Off the Record bar,
exquisite guest rooms and catering — and all
of that comes under my responsibility.
Diplomatic Connections: That is an enor-
mous responsibility, but sounds as if it’s fun
for you as well.
Chef Schaffrath: If it weren’t fun I couldn’t
do this job. I tell young culinary students
who visit here sometimes that they need to
look around and see the reality of what a
professional chef does. When they watch
television it seems easy — it’s just a show.
But, in real life it’s a very detailed and often
cumbersome job.
Diplomatic Connections: Beyond the prox-
imity to the White House and the incredible
views this location provides, what is it that
distinguishes The Hay-Adams from other
leading hotels here in Washington, D.C.?
What makes this place special?
Chef Schaffrath: We pride ourselves on
offering our guests a home away from home.
We give the guests special attention from
48 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
the moment they arrive. Most of the time we know their names
when they arrive, and that immediately personalizes the guests’
experience here. From the time they move into the hotel until
the time they leave, we want to take care of our guests and
make certain that their every need is met.
We pride ourselves on service. We know what our
guests like, and we do our best to honor any special requests.
We always treat everyone with the same respect. We have
many dignitaries but also people from show business and
the corporate world. It keeps you on your toes! And, we
are very discrete about our guests’ identities and their special
requests. We host them as if they were in our home, and we
want to spoil them.
Diplomatic Connections: Chef, at the risk of asking you
to divulge a state secret, do you keep dossiers on your guests
and their preferences — special dishes that they particularly
like or other preferences that they have?
Chef Schaffrath: Yes, we do. We keep track of every
repeat guest who comes. We know all of their needs. And
we really do care about their likes and dislikes right down to
things like food allergies and preferred condiments.
Diplomatic Connections: What role does food play in
the life of The Hay-Adams Hotel?
Chef Schaffrath: We have an international clientele with
people coming to us from all around the world. We have
people from Asia, Europe, South America, really from all the
continents. We pride ourselves on our ability to handle any
occasion.
Given the hotel’s proximity to the White House, that
leads us to have many major delegations staying with us.
The head of state will, in all likelihood, be staying at Blair
House, but the other high ranking members of their traveling
group might be staying here with us to be close by. So, we
have to carefully cater to their specific needs. Usually there’s
an advance team that will let us know what our guests’ likes
and dislikes are so that we are able to anticipate their needs.
Diplomatic Connections: How do you handle all the
different culinary and cultural expectations that are thrown at
you in the course of a year coming from the different embas-
sies and cultural communities around Washington? How,
suddenly, does a European-trained chef suddenly turn into a
Japanese master banqueter?
Chef Schaffrath: The challenge is always to come up with
a new menu, but we have a great team who participate in all
the decisions and suggest menu ideas. We have the support
of the general manager and other staff members who suggest
ideas about how we set-up a special occasion and the accom-
panying menus.
And, it’s not only from the culinary standpoint. It has to
do with the service as well. There are so many different little
details involved in how to make the presentation of the food
and making certain that the event comes out perfectly. It’s
nice when you have people from many different nationalities
whose experience you can draw on to make certain that the
food and the arrangements always work.
Diplomatic Connections: Four years ago, before his
inauguration President Obama and his family were here as
guests at The Hay-Adams. What was that like, to have the
almost-First Family in residence before their move to the
White House?
Chef Schaffrath: We really enjoyed having the Obama
family here with us. We took care of them, and they loved it
here. President Obama had one of his personal chefs, Sam
Kass (assistant chef and senior policy advisor for Healthy Food
Initiatives at the White House,) with him as well because the
regular hotel staff was not allowed to come too close to him.
He was the liaison between the President-elect and us. We’re
all still friends, and he’s still at the White House.
It was very nice to have the President-elect here but very
complicated as well. We had the Secret Service on every
floor and in every corner. But we took it as an honor really
to have the future President of the United States staying with
us. And we hope we have many more.
Diplomatic Connections: Chef, how do you organize a
kitchen and a staff? It sounds as if it must be almost military
basic training to get staff prepared because it’s always working
in a relatively small space even if you’re cooking for hundreds
of people. How do you even begin to organize that and put
your staff together?
Chef Schaffrath: First of all you create a crew and then
the most important thing is training. The groups I work with
are really very well trained. Everything is precisely marked
to show the specific function for which it is intended. You
have to remember that we’re almost never preparing food
for a single function. It is often the case that we have six or
seven functions all at the same time. So, everything is put on
cards to specify functions and exact preparations. And tim-
ing, obviously, is critical — especially for larger functions. It
takes a lot of coordination and planning.
Diplomatic Connections: Kitchens are almost like a dance
routine on stage. Everything is choreographed precisely so
that people aren’t falling over each other . . . most of the 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 2 49
50 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
Chef Schaffrath: It gets very hectic sometimes. Another factor to consider in
a larger group is that people have choices of entrees. Then you have individual
dietary requirements. You have vegetarians, and you have a variety of dietary
limitations. It all gets pretty complicated. And it takes a great deal of organiza-
tion. That’s our job here at the hotel and in the kitchens. But, we have a great
team — not only from the culinary side but from the service side as well.
Diplomatic Connections: How do you work together with the service
people? Do you take a hand in training the service people and setting up the
schedule of what they’re going to serve when? Do you describe how you want
them to present a dish that has become almost a work of art for you?
Chef Schaffrath: Whenever we introduce new menu items, we always have
all the new dishes freshly prepared and we have all the wait staff present. The
maître d’ and sometimes the chefs will explain where the dish and its ingredients
come from, the seasonal nature of the ingredients, and how the dish is prepared
in the kitchen. We want the staff to know as much as possible about each dish
so that they can explain it to the guests. And, then the wait staff will taste every-
thing as well. That way they can say from personal experience that this dish is
fantastic or identify specific flavors and ingredients in each dish.
Diplomatic Connections: What are some of the differences between Euro-
pean and American kitchens?
Chef Schaffrath: In Europe, we have a very regimented training program
of stages you must go through to become a chef. In the United States, there is
more flexibility. People may start in one profession and find themselves not very
happy in it. Then they hear about the “glory” of being a chef and they go to a
culinary school where they learn the basics. But they’ve never really worked in a
hotel or in a restaurant before that. That’s a major difference.
And then there’s the cultural part. Especially when I was younger and at
home in Germany, you really do sit down as a family and eat all together. That’s
a cultural thing that continues and develops in later life into a respect for food
and dining as a social occasion. There’s not a rush to finish, unlike how meals
are often taken here in the United States. It’s very common in Europe that the
family sits together and enjoys a multi-course, even if it’s a simple meal.
Then, cooking-wise, we have different products in Europe than you have
here. In the United States you have year-round produce — asparagus, strawber-
ries — which we don’t have in Europe where we really go by the seasons. You
cook by what’s available in each season of the year. That has helped me in my
present position to change menus seasonally and frequently. But in the States
you have the produce available all year-round so you can leave menus un-
changed for long periods of time.
Diplomatic Connections: There is a movement throughout the culinary
world toward more organic ingredients, toward more locally produced ingredi-
ents, toward really involving the chefs, the kitchens and the food producers —
the growers from beginning to end of the food preparation process. Are there
farmers with whom you are able to say: This is an ingredient I’d like to have, can
you supply it for me?
Chef Schaffrath: In Pennsylvania, for instance, I have a supplier who grows
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 2 51
only mushrooms. They grow fresh chanterelles, oyster
mushrooms, shiitakes, portabellas. You never find quality
like theirs outside a dedicated supplier.
For vegetables we have an organic farm that produces
all of our micro-greens, all of our different leaf lettuces. And
the quality is fantastic. And then we have a weekly farmers’
market right across from the hotel every Thursday where we
buy produce. The sous-chef and I go over, look at what’s
especially fresh and seasonal, and then we have a special for
the next two days!
Diplomatic Connections: Based on your experience,
how is cooking in Washington — being in the nation’s
capital — different from cooking in any other large city in
the United States?
Chef Schaffrath: I came to the States from Europe, and
I started in Dallas and traveled to the West Coast as well.
People in the Washington area are still a little bit more
conservative in their approach and in the way they like their
food. Tastes here are not as adventurous as they are on the
West Coast, where everything is some kind of fusion.
It doesn’t mean that we can’t do those sorts of things, but
our guests come in for things like a Cobb salad, or a cup-
cake or a beautiful Dover sole, which you rarely still find in
restaurants because it takes a bit of preparation time. When
I started, I tried to change and make it more modern, but
people wanted to hold on to tradition. We do introduce new
dishes all the time, but you’re walking a fine food political
line. What can you introduce to the menu, and what do you
dare not take away?
Diplomatic Connections: You have participated in sev-
eral of the world’s leading cooking competitions. What are
those experiences like? Do you enjoy being a part of them?
Do you like working with the other chefs?
Chef Schaffrath: I used to take part in these professional
competitions when I was in Europe, in London. For
instance, there is the Mouton Cadet competition sponsored
by Baron Rothschild out of Pauillac. You submit a menu and
then a panel of nine of the top chefs in London selects the
last three finalists. At that stage there is a cook-off, and that
puts a lot of pressure on you. You’re going into an environ-
ment where you’ve never been before to prepare and cook
your menu.
I won this competition. Then I was flown into the Cha-
teau Rothschild cellars where I was asked to reproduce the
same menu for 120 people, which was quite an undertaking.
Diplomatic Connections: Earlier you spoke about being
a hands-on executive chef. Are there certain things that are
very hard for you to let go of in the kitchen? Is it difficult to
let someone else prepare a dish that is close to your heart?
Chef Schaffrath: I love to create fish dishes, and to cut
fish properly you really need a bit of experience. Anybody
can cut fish but in order to get the best yield out of a piece of
fish takes a good bit of skill. When we have special events I
usually cut the fish myself! That way I can portion it properly.
Also, we have many little functions that I like to cook
for. I certainly don’t do everything by myself, but I am in
charge. There are a lot of things that I don’t do myself, but I
am in charge. When I’m the one who will be meeting guests
in the dining room, then I really am actively there in the
kitchen and will do a good deal of the cooking myself. I also
do a lot of the wedding tastings myself. In other hotels these
things might just be left to the banquet chef, but I take pride
in it. I like to take care of our guests.
Diplomatic Connections: This is really a question that
should be asked of your family. Do you cook at home when
you leave the hotel?
Chef Schaffrath: On occasion when we have friends over.
But my wife is French, and she is a very good cook as well.
Usually she cooks so that when I come home I can sit down
in peace, have a glass of wine, and she feeds me. But when
we have guests or friends coming I will sometimes cook.
Diplomatic Connections: I assume you learned over the
years not to be too critical?
Chef Schaffrath: No, I love my wife and I don’t criti-
cize. We joke sometimes because she loves to entertain and
sometimes she forgets that she has things in the oven. Things
have been known to come out a little darker than they’re
supposed to be!
Diplomatic Connections: What are some of your favor-
ite dishes? Some of the things you most like to prepare?
Chef Schaffrath: I love fresh items like vegetables and
fish — a beautifully roasted sea bass, for instance, in a fennel
and saffron broth. Something light is always good for these
hot summer months. I like lamb as well . . . beautiful, farm-
raised lamb is very tender and beautiful.
Diplomatic Connections: Chef Schaffrath, you’ve helped
to dispel the stereotype of the master chef as the prima
donna, as the diva, of the kitchen. You have given us a very
human view of the importance of food and the dearness of
food to your heart. Obviously, you’ve made food a center of
your life and all of us who are guests in any of your facilities
are privileged to share the gift of your cuisine. n
52 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
New York Giants visit President Obama for White House traditionBy Meghan Lawson
he parallels between sports and politics are ripe for analogy. But few
are as fitting as that between the New York Giants’ win in super Bowl xLVI and President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. This summer, the President honored the most recent super Bowl champions with a ceremony at the White House. The similarities between the Giants’ stunning win and President Obama’s goal to win a second term in November were not lost on Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. “We both have a goal to get
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 2 53
President Obama (R) listens while New York Giants Head Coach Tom
Coughlin speaks during an event on the South Lawn of the White House
on June 8, 2012, in Washington. Obama hosted the New York Giants
to celebrate their 2012 win at the NFL’s Super Bowl 46.
Bren
dan
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etty
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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 2 55
President Obama (2nd L) poses for photographs with (L-R) New York Giants players Zak DeOssie, Justin Tuck and Eli Manning while welcoming the National Football League
Super Bowl champions to the White House June 8, 2012, in Washington, DC. The Giants defeated The New England Patriots 21-17 to win Super Bowl XLVI.
Chip
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56 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
President Obama greets members of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants on the South Lawn of the White House, June 8, 2012, during a ceremony honoring the team for their Super Bowl XLVI victory.
back here next year. We have a lot of work to do,” Coughlin
told the crowd assembled on the South Lawn at 1600 Penn-
sylvania Avenue. Members of Congress, military veterans and
Vice President Joe Biden were all on hand to help celebrate
the championship team.
In February, the Giants shocked the football world with
an unexpected 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots
in the February 5 final. With a shaky regular season record
of 9-7, the New York team was pinned as the underdog
against New England, who arrived in Indianapolis — where
the game was hosted — with a 13-3 record. Moreover, the
Giants spent much of the regular season battling a series of
injuries among their receiving and defensive lineups.
“But the players, the coaches, the staff, the owners — they
didn’t quit,” President Obama said in a speech to the crowd.
“They believed in each other. And they kept winning, all the
way to Indianapolis.”
Two-time Super Bowl MVP and Giants quarter back Eli
Manning joined defensive end Justin Tuck and linebacker
Zak DeOssie in presenting President Obama with a No. 44
jersey and a football signed by the team. Like several of his
teammates, this was Manning’s second visit to the White
House, having attended a similar ceremony after the Giants’
2008 Super Bowl win over the Patriots.
“This is all starting to sound like déjà vu,” joked the
President.
Inviting the NFL championship team to a White House
reception has become a tradition for those occupying the
Oval Office. In 1970, President Richard Nixon began the
practice by inviting Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart
Starr to a White House reception. A decade later, in 1980,
President Jimmy Carter hosted then Super Bowl champion-
ship team the Pittsburgh Steelers, along with World Series
champions the Pittsburgh Pirates, for a day of celebrations.
“When I began to think who, in the entire nation, can
give me best advice on how to meet a tough challenge suc-
cessfully and win great victories,” explained President Carter,
“I naturally remembered the Pirates and the Steelers.”
Offic
ial W
hite
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se P
hoto
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Pete
Sou
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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 2 57
When the Giants first beat the Patriots in Super Bowl
XLVI, President George W. Bush welcomed them for a White
House celebration, calling their win as “one of the great,
legendary football games in our country’s history.”
While delivering his speech at the ceremony,
President Obama drew parallels between his
political role and the sporting world while de-
scribing a Giants’ pre-game ritual. On February 4,
the team watched a highlight reel set to Phil Collins’ “In the Air
Tonight,” apparently the good luck song for Justin Tuck.
“I don’t know about a little Phil Collins before a big
game,” President Obama said. “I may try that before
a big meeting with Congress.”
Off the field, the Giants have also been
scoring points in New York and New Jersey
with community service initiatives, a develop-
Tim
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Former President George W. Bush (R) receives a football jersey from then New York Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer (L) during an event to honor the NFL Super Bowl champions on April 30, 2008, at the White House in Washington, DC. Eli Manning in background on left side.
58 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
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 2 59
ment highlighted by the President.
“From fighting childhood obesity —
Michelle likes that — to wrapping up
leftover food for homeless shelters, to
working with the Make-a-Wish Foun-
dation to bring kids to practices and
games, Big Blue supports the folks who
support them,” he told the crowd,
with a nod to the First Lady’s initiative
to end obesity.
This past May, Coach Coughlin’s
work with America’s men and women in
uniform even earned him an Outstand-
ing Civilian Service Award, the third
highest honor the U.S. Army can bestow
on a private citizen.
“We began to focus on the inspira-
tion this team provided to all Americans
down on their luck because of the econ-
omy,” Coughlin explained, pointing to
a priority weighing heavily on America’s
political minds. “How this team might
have inspired them not to give up hope.”
Now with two Super Bowl rings
in just five seasons, Coughlin is more
determined than ever to make it back to
the White House for a third time. “A few
short years ago, I said I hoped this day
wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime experience,”
said the New York native. “Now, I hope
it’s not twice-in-a-lifetime.”
An estimated 111.3 million
American viewers tuned in to Super
Bowl XLVI, making it the most-watched
television program in American history.
With the National Football League set
to kick off its 93rd season in September,
autumn promises to be a busy season
for both the players and the politicians.
Even with a re-election campaign
in full swing, President Obama did
not hold back about his own football
allegiances at the summer event. “Go
Bears,” he told reporters as walked back
to the Oval Office. n
Chip
Som
odev
illa/
Getty
Imag
es
President Obama shares a laugh with members of the National Football League Super Bowl champions New York Giants at the White House June 8, 2012, in Washington, D.C.
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62 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
Mahnaz Khazen and Violet Parvarandeh are emigrants
from Iran who left the turmoil of their home country
to seek new opportunities in the United States. Here
they have become citizens and social entrepreneurs who take
seriously the idea that their successes impose a requirement
to give back to the community. They have found a mechanism
to do exactly that through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa
program created by the U.S. Congress and administered by the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service under the aegis of
the Department of Homeland Security. Starting from that base,
a business model that became the U.S. Immigration Invest-
ment Center based in San Jose, California, was conceived and
nurtured into operation.
The congressional intent of the EB-5 Visa program was
“to stimulate the U.S. economy through capital investment and
job creation by foreign investors.” That foreign investment was
to come in exchange for expedited access to a “green card” —
permanent resident status in the United States. Once the
initial investment is approved, applicants receive a two-year
temporary green card as a “conditional permanent resident.”
Successful operation of a commercial business that saves or
creates at least 10 full-time jobs will result in the investor
being accorded U.S. Permanent Resident status. The minimum
qualifying capital investment is $1 million though that require-
ment is reduced to $500,000 for investments in targeted rural
areas or areas of high unemployment.
Out of this thicket of legal requirements and the sharply
focused memories of her own earlier immigrant experience,
Mahnaz Khazen saw a business opportunity that was also an
opportunity to do good and to pass on to a new generation of
F. Lewis Bristol
immigrants the opportunities that life in America had offered her.
Ms. Khazen left Iran in the midst of the Islamic Revolution
in 1979. Just after she graduated high school she was on her
way to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran to request a visa for study in
the United States, where she’d been accepted at several univer-
sities. As she approached the compound, she found it sur-
rounded by demonstrators. That was November 4, 1979, the
day that the U.S. embassy was taken over by Iranian student
demonstrators and embassy staffers became hostages held for
444 days until their release in January 1981 just after the new
U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, took the oath of office. Un-
able to request a U.S. visa, she turned to the Austrian Embassy,
which granted her a visa and a scholarship for four years of
study at an agricultural college in Vienna. She came to the
United States in 1983.
“Had I known,” she recalls, “that I would not see my family
for 18 years, perhaps I would never have approached the Aus-
trian Embassy for a visa. But these things happen, and we have
to learn to understand the circumstances and make the best
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 2 63
out of them. We have to talk about immigrant survival skills.
Immigrants have an amazing energy that allows them to
come to a new country with very little and be able to achieve
great things.”
Khazen’s colleague, Violet Parvarandeh, left her home
country in the midst of the long Iran-Iraq War in 1984. She
joined her husband in the United States where he was a
graduate student. “My husband and I were very young, and
we were left to our own devices to adapt to life in the United
States — to learn a new language, to learn a new culture and
to learn new ways of doing things. It was hard.” Despite
those hardships, she looks back at that experience as provid-
ing a unique opportunity. “Coming from Iran and living here
in the United States, my adopted home, I can very well have
the best of both worlds mingling together. I believe America
is the only country that allows you to have that freedom
— to have your old culture and your new culture mingling
together and creating a better life for you.”
As CEO and Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Immigra-
tion Investment Center, Mahnaz Khazen, and her colleague,
Violet Parvarandeh, a member of the USIIC Board of Direc-
tors and Micro Loan Committee Chair, agreed to an exclusive
interview with Diplomatic Connections during a recent busi-
ness trip to Washington, D.C. They shared with us not only
USIIC’s operational model but their underlying passion for
the work that brings balance sheets and paper work to life in
human terms — people’s lives changed, local lending institu-
tions reinvigorated and new facilities constructed.
Diplomatic Connections: Ms. Khazen, would you tell
us a little bit about the mission of your company, the U.S.
International Investment Center? Why and how did you
form this company?
Mahnaz Khazen: Our business started for the purpose of
giving back to the country that has given so much to us and
our families. The mission in detail is to provide housing for
veterans including health centers, and to provide housing
for immigrants who are just coming to the United States and
need help understanding and adapting to their new home.
We are focusing on lower-income and moderate-income
housing and senior housing. We are looking at assisting
many sorts of job creating factors. But the way to do it for us
is to recapitalize troubled community banks because commu-
nity banks actually fund more projects in their communities
than do large commercial banks.
Our goals are to help community banks by recapitalizing
them so that, in return, they can lend to businesses in their
community. Hopefully, with our assistance, their efforts will
go toward projects that would help create housing, senior
housing and all the other missions that we have.
Diplomatic Connections: There are two sides to an
equation here. You have talked about things like veterans’
wellness centers, about housing, about recapitalizing fail-
ing community banks here in the United States. But those
things only become possible by attracting foreign investment,
international investors to come into the United States market.
And the attraction for foreign investors is that they are able
to, by bringing into the United States a certain amount of
investment under certain conditions, to receive green card
(permanent resident) status because of their investment. Is
that correct?
Mahnaz Khazen: Absolutely right. When I was a com-
mercial real estate broker, I was eager to find U.S. investors
who would actually support my ideas, but I could not find
local investors who would not require high return on their
investment.
Completely by accident I was talking to another de-
veloper, and I asked, “Where did you get the money?” He
responded, “Oh, there is a program called EB-5 (The Immi-
grant Investor Program administered by the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Service) and I made an application to form
a company to encourage foreign investment in the United
States.” I immediately thought, “There is a possibility that we
can actually go out and attract outside investors.”
Before I founded USIIC, I was not able to find financing
for many of the projects we considered. By creating USIIC it
has become possible to identify and attract foreign investors
who wish to invest in the United States.
Diplomatic Connections: To put it in business terms, the
return on investment is different for a foreign investor than it
might be for a domestic investor because of the immigration
green card status. In other words, foreign investors can afford
to take a lower percentage return on their dollar investment
because, in fact, the real return on their investment is the abil-
ity to achieve green card status in the United States, perhaps to
access education in the United States for their children.
Mahnaz Khazen: The first intention for an immigrant is, “I
want to come to the United States. I want to have better edu-
cational opportunities for my family. I want to have freedom
and comfort for my entire family. And, I want to have security
of investment.” Far more than freedom, though everybody
talks about it, we have found that that’s not one of the prob-
lems confronting new immigrants. That’s not the big issue.
The big issue is security of investment because every time a
nation goes through turmoil people lose everything they have.
So, stability is what they are looking for.
Diplomatic Connections: In other words, there is a “safe
haven” aspect to making investments in the United States.
Mahnaz Khazen: Totally safe haven. It’s not the ques-
tion of freedom. That’s not the main question. Instead, it’s
security. Many potential immigrants to the United States are
64 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
willing to accept limited returns on their investment
in exchange for an expedited entry process, a more
secure investment climate and more immediate
opportunities for their families. In that situa-
tion, they have no problem investing their life
savings, their hard work and their hard won
earnings in the United States.
Diplomatic Connections: We are using
a very technical term — the EB-5 Immigrant
Investor Visa program. Would you explain
what EB-5 is and how it is different from
other forms of visas under which potential
immigrants might come to the United States?
Violet Parvarandeh: The difference is
that EB-5 is an investment visa. Basically,
the foreign investor brings a certain amount
of money into the United States as a busi-
ness investment, and in order for them to get
the green card they have to provide jobs for
Americans. This program offers the potential
for the investor to receive the green card while
at the same time it provides jobs for Americans.
It’s a win-win situation.
Diplomatic Connections: There is a mini-
mum required investment of how much?
Mahnaz Khazen: The minimum requirement
investment is $500,000 in a targeted area, that
is, rural areas and areas of high unemployment.
In these areas, the government allows the lower
threshold of investment. But, the base investment
is $1,000,000 in metropolitan and fairly stable
areas. Our company has been staying quite com-
fortably at the level of $1,000,000 and more. We do not ac-
tually even advertise the $500,000. But, if we do find banks
that do have the capability of receiving $500,000 minimums,
where they are in high unemployment areas, targeted areas,
of course we’ll open that channel for an investor.
It takes a great deal of time for USIIC to clear an applica-
tion, and obviously, $500,000 deals are in highly distressed
areas with high unemployment. Even though our investors
are not seeking the highest rates of return, it is our respon-
sibility not to risk their investment either. So, if we can
increase their ceiling to the minimum $1,000,000 rather than
the $500,000, we will be able to secure their investment over
the time that they need in order to go through the clearance
process and get their green card. That’s very important to us.
Diplomatic Connections: When an investor makes the
commitment of $500,000 or $1,000,000 then they receive a
temporary green card. Is that right?
Mahnaz Khazen: No. Actually, when they make a com-
mitment, then they need to send the funds to a third-party
bank. The funds will sit there until we verify whether the ap-
plication will go to OFAC (The Office of Foreign Assets Con-
trol in the Treasury Department) or not. All applications will
be submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
under the Department of Homeland Security for approval.
We will not be doing anything with the funds. The applicant
will not receive anything until Homeland Security and other
agencies have given their blessings. Then, the applicant goes
through the process of getting their temporary green card.
Diplomatic Connections: Is it true that the single largest
group of EB-5 investors is Chinese?
Mahnaz Khazen: Yes, that’s correct. They are the
Chinese, absolutely. We are more than happy to work with
Chinese investors, but that is not our primary target. We find
that there are many other areas of the world where interest
in the EB-5 Visa program is quite high. For that reason, we
are opening processing centers in places such as Dubai in the
United Arab Emirates, in Jordan and Ethiopia as well as our
offices in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and our
home office in San Jose, California.
Diplomatic Connections: One of the interesting things
about this is that it’s possible to invest in the United States,
receive green card status and at the same time you’re not
becoming an American citizen, at least not yet. That means
that you are retaining your home, your natural citizenship
and still have green card status in the United States.
Mahnaz Khazen: Oftentimes foreign governments will
ask us: why are you trying to take away our citizens? But, you
don’t have to become an American citizen. You can maintain
permanent resident status without becoming an American citi-
zen. This is a way for an investor perhaps to have temporary
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 2 65
housing in the U.S. until their children finish school. Perhaps
your situation changes and you want to go back home,
you’re free to do so. However, you may be deemed to have
“abandoned” your green card status if you reside for an
extended period of time outside the United States.
Diplomatic Connections: How big is the EB-5 program?
There is a ceiling on the number of visas that can be granted,
is there not?
Mahnaz Khazen: There is currently a maximum of
10,000 visas that can be issued on an annual basis. But, we
haven’t ever met this number. Typically, it is more like 3,500-
3,600 annually. Hopefully, we will hit the current ceiling
soon, and then we will go back to Congress and ask to have
the ceiling raised.
Diplomatic Connections: How does USIIC work with
education as far as families and people who might make
investments in the United States?
Mahnaz Khazen: When we did our research, one of the
top issues for families after stabilization and after investment
was education for their children. We have excellent school
systems in the United States, and we set world standards in
higher education. Potential immigrant investors love to have
their children here. We offer a complete team of experts
that will assist our investors and their families to access the
American education system.
Diplomatic Connections: Your website indicates that
you often work with De Anza College in California, in Silicon
Valley. Why have you chosen to work with the community
college system in California?
Violet Parvarandeh: We noticed that one of the most
important issues for the immigrant families is education for
their children. De Anza College has a large number of inter-
national students and faculty and offers superb programs to
support immigrant families. They provide many classes for
English as a Second Language (ESL) as well as experts who
will help immigrants with their integration into the commu-
nity. Students from the community college system are well
prepared to move on to a wide variety of four-year colleges
and universities as well as leading graduate programs in a
wide range of fields.
Diplomatic Connections: The notion is that these colleges
help ease the transition into the American education system?
Violet Parvarandeh: I went to De Anza and it was a great
help because you see the diversity of all the immigrant com-
munities attending De Anza. That is true not only of the stu-
dents. The faculty is also a mixture of different cultures. It’s
a great way to ease your way into living in the United States.
We’re very proud to be associated with them.
Diplomatic Connections: USIIC is West Coast-based.
Ms. Khazen, your background was commercial real estate
on the West Coast before starting USIIC. Why turn now to
the other coast, to those of us here on the East Coast? Why
decide to open a Washington office?
Mahnaz Khazen: I love Washington. It may be our
Middle Eastern upbringing, but it seems you can’t do any-
thing without being present in the nation’s capital. This is
the capital. If you have something to say, and you’re not
afraid of saying it, and you have nothing to hide, then be here
in Washington. Let people know what you want to do. This
is where all the government is run. This is where policies are
made. This is where foreign governments are officially repre-
sented. This is where you have the best of the best.
Violet Parvarandeh: Why not here? The energy in this
city is fantastic.
Diplomatic Connections: You’ve adopted a somewhat
different model for your approach to EB-5 by focusing on the
banking industry and distressed, under capitalized banks. Can
you first explain how such a model operates? Why choose
banking as opposed to manufacturing or construction projects?
Mahnaz Khazen: EB-5 was a way for me to use the
program to attract foreign investors to the United States. The
program allows USIIC to assemble investors to assist fail-
ing banks. We can help families by empowering the local
banks. We do this by recapitalizing them so that they can get
their credit levels back up. That allows the bank to continue
extending loans, perhaps with modifications. Our hope is to
find tools that will allow us to relieve the banks of their non-
performing assets (NPAs) and other problems while we’re
recapitalizing them. That would allow the bank to invest
money back into the community.
How does this idea work? For every dollar that we put in,
we have the power of economic multipliers. Instead of build-
ing a $100 million development like a hotel, we take the $100
million and recapitalize these community banks. With proper
management that is approved by the Federal Reserve and with
depositors’ accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC), the banks infuse the money back into
the community. As these investment dollars cycle through
the community, the multiplier effect means that $100 million
invested can generate $1-$1.5 billion in economic activity. The
impact of these dollars invested in the banks and then rein-
vested in the community is far greater than the impact of any
single construction or development project.
Diplomatic Connections: Earlier this year there was
a good deal of press coverage of the possibility that USIIC
would be bringing investors to a local bank in Maryland —
HarVest Bank. Those assets have now been sold to a different
banking group. Could you tell us — because people heard
about this proposed deal — exactly how that HarVest Bank
situation unfolded and how it impacts your model of invest-
66 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
ing in distressed banks.
Mahnaz Khazen: It was an amazing learning curve for
us. We have learned to understand that not everything you
want may happen. There are limitations. We are starting
on a model that has never happened before. But the regula-
tors and the Federal Reserve have been extremely kind to us.
They understand what we’re trying to do, and they’re trying
to guide us in a proper way.
The limitation set on USIIC was not related to our
nationalities or our background. The limitation was purely
based on banking guidelines which meant that so long as
we’re not a holding company, we were not able to acquire
or invest or participate in recapitalization exceeding 24.9
percent. That limitation did not allow us to help HarVest the
way we wanted to. We had the money, but we didn’t have
the power to do more than we were allowed. And, we had
no intention to break the law. So, unfortunately we just had
to sit back and watch events unfold without us.
Diplomatic Connections: How do you answer the
criticism that your model of banking investment is opening
American banks to the possibility of greater foreign control?
Mahnaz Khazen: Bear in mind that the foreign investors
are entering into a limited partnership with USIIC, and it is
the vetted and approved managers within USIIC, our chief
financial officer and our chief banking officer, who actually
find these investment possibilities. Then they represent the
company and the foreign investors’ interests within the banks.
So, there are U.S. citizens who are overseeing the assets within
the banks. The foreign investor has no power, no voting
power, no direct influence. The foreign investors’ management
capability is limited by the conditions set by USCIS to come
into a partnership. There is absolutely no foreign influence
within the banking model. It is a U.S. entity with U.S. citizens
overseeing the funds that have been invested.
Diplomatic Connections: How do you find and screen
potential investors to know that they’re serious and that they
have the financial means? And, how do you find and screen
investment opportunities here in the United States?
Violet Parvarandeh: The investors come to us most of the
time through the recommendation of people who are known
to our program officers. That means we know who they are.
We take great care to follow the guidelines established by
USCIS. All applications go through interviews and extensive
screening to establish and confirm the applicant’s identity. As
far as the screening of their money sources goes, that respon-
sibility is on the U.S. Government agencies — the Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Citizenship and Immigra-
tion Services (USCIS) at Homeland Security.
Diplomatic Connections: One of the concerns is the
question of whether the EB-5 visa process could be used for
money laundering, and that’s where OFAC would come in.
Violet Parvarandeh: We have no way of verifying the
financial background of the investor or the sources of the
funds. Whether the money is clean or not, that is up to
Homeland Security and the Treasury Department to determine.
The last thing we want to do is to facilitate any kind of money
laundering operation.
As far as matching investors and investments, the best
thing we have working for us is utilizing the banking mecha-
nisms. Our investment is as secure as it can be because of
all the regulatory hurdles we must jump before we can bring
investors to a distressed bank. We have an amazingly strong
banking team.
I don’t think that any other EB-5 company has taken the
same steps and measures for security that USIIC has been
required to put in place because of its banking model and the
range of U.S. regulatory agencies with which we must deal. No
other EB-5 has done this. We must be extremely careful to make
sure that whatever we do is completely vetted and verified.
Diplomatic Connections: How — out of all of the visions
and the positives that you have described for us — does USIIC
make any money? Do you charge a fee, a percentage, how
does the process work with your clients?
Mahnaz Khazen: We do charge a processing fee depending
on the size of the investment. Interested investors can com-
municate with us, and we will be happy to share our entire fee
structure. Normally the fee ranges from $59,000 - $89,000.
That includes our operating expenses as well as the fees that
we have to pay to third party agencies during the screening
and approval process.
Our actual income would come when we do the property
investment for the investor. We will not see any profits unless
we make profits for the investor. That forces us to be discern-
ing in our investment models and it keeps us on our toes to
make sure that we manage investors’ funds properly.
Diplomatic Connections: Under the law that created
the EB-5 visa category, there also was created authorization
for companies like USIIC, called regional investment centers.
There are several hundred of these regional investment centers
around the country. What makes USIIC different from other
EB-5 regional investment centers?
Mahnaz Khazen: Our business model. Our impact in the
community is far greater than what other centers are doing.
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 2 67
on new ground here. What’s most impressive is the fact that
you’ve devoted so much thought to both sides of the equa-
tion — your investors’ needs but also what you’re investing
in, especially the kind of community focus that you’re taking
with your emphasis on banks, on wellness centers, on micro-
loans and on woman-centered businesses.
For more detailed information on the U.s. Immigration Investment Center please go to their website:
www.usiicenter.com
We are much more transparent for the investor. Investment
must be at risk as required by USCIS, but we make sure that
any risk is mitigated as much as possible because we are in-
vesting with community banks that are insured by the FDIC.
We believe we know what we are doing because we have a
superb staff of experienced financial and legal profession-
als. And, we believe that our heart is in the right place. We
understand what we have to give back to the community and
how we have to do it.
Diplomatic Connections: Thank you both for taking
time to come to Washington. We’re delighted that you love
the city so much and certainly pleased that you’ve set out
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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 2 69
Diplomatic Connections: Cyprus holds the
rotating presidency of the European Union until
December. What does that involve?
Ambassador Anastasiades: This is the
first time that Cyprus is holding the EU presi-
dency, so it’s a historic occasion for Cyprus. We
feel both proud and heavy with the burden of
responsibility. Cyprus is a small country with
no special agenda, so we’ll be acting to facilitate
our common objectives in the European Union.
Diplomatic Connections: The challenge of
handling all the activity of the presidency must
be huge.
Ambassador Anastasiades: Yes, it’s huge.
We are going to be holding something like
185 meetings in Cyprus with 20,000 delegates
[from the 27 member countries] participating,
and there are hundreds of meetings in Brussels.
However, the task has been lightened somewhat
since the [signing of the] Lisbon Treaty because
the role of the European Union common institu-
tions has been widened. They have assumed a
wider range of competencies, including in the
area of foreign affairs where we have Baroness
(Catherine) Ashton, as the high representative.
Diplomatic Connections: More or less the
European foreign minister…
Ambassador Anastasiades: Our European
foreign minister. The European Union now has
an external service — a foreign service — and
By Roland Flamini
In 1974, Turkish troops parachuted into Cyprus with the de-clared intention of protecting the Mediterranean island’s Turkish
Cypriot minority from an attempted coup by Greece. Today, almost 40 years later, there are still 36,000 Turkish troops based in the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recog-nized only by Turkey. Greek Cypriots, almost 80 percent of the population, live in the southern two-thirds of the country. A United Nations peacekeeping force maintains a buffer between the two. Turkey’s continued military presence is justified by Ankara as security for the Turkish minority, but is seen by Greek Cypriots as an occupation. The international community is also critical of it; but no real pressure has ever been exerted on Turkey, a NATO member, to withdraw its forces. Since the 1970s, the United Nations, with U.S. support, has promoted a series of negotiations aimed at reuniting the island as a federal, bi-communal, bi-zonal republic. Despite the division (widely known as “the Cyprus problem”), in 2003 the island — realistically the Greek Cypriot part — became a member of the European Union, and in June of this year took over for the first time the rotating EU presidency. In 2008, a new round of talks started on the Cyprus problem. At first, the talks showed more promise than their predecessors, but they have since stalled, with each side blaming the other for the deadlock. The key to a solution, says Cyprus Ambassador Pavlos Anastadiades in an interview with Diplomatic Connections, is and has always depended on Turkey. Hence the new element in the negotiations: Turkey has applied to join the European Union, and accession is not possible without the agreement of all EU members. And that includes Cyprus.
70 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
European Union delegations represent the European Union
abroad. We cooperate closely with the European Union
delegations, and that eases the burden. Yet, the presidency
still has a lot of work to do. We have more than doubled our
strength in Brussels, and we’re running a presidency that is
Brussels-based.
Diplomatic Connections: Usually, the presidency has
specific objectives of its own that it wants to accomplish dur-
ing its six-month tenure. Is there a special Cyprus project?
Ambassador Anastasiades: Our overall aim is a bet-
ter Europe — greater solidarity and social cohesion, a more
efficient and sustainable Europe that is more economically
vibrant and growth-based.
Diplomatic Connections: But there’s always the inher-
ited agenda — in this case the biggest economic challenge
the European Union has so far faced.
Ambassador Anastasiades: Of course, we are all faced
with an economic crisis — a sovereign debt crisis — which
in the European Union is quite serious. We’re dealing with
that. Our approach is to promote greater fiscal consolida-
tion for controlling budgets, but to provide for growth, and
greater integration.
Diplomatic Connections: But integration is already
happening.
Ambassador Anastasiades: The last European Coun-
cil in June took very important decisions in all these fields,
providing the basis for work to be done during the current
period to deal with the crisis and allow us to get out of this
vicious circle of greater sovereign debt, greater assistance,
greater austerity and so on. We’ve done our homework: we
know what we have to do, and we are doing it.
Diplomatic Connections: From across the Atlantic, the
situation for the Eurozone looks extremely alarming, but are
we in the United States being too negative about it?
Ambassador Anastasiades: I think there is an element
of that, yes. The significance that’s being attached at all levels
within the European Union to dealing with the crisis is not
always appreciated. We have to do the right thing, to do the
work, and we have to explain what we are doing so that this
perception gap is reduced.
Diplomatic Connections: How has the closeness of Cy-
prus to a near-bankrupt Greece impacted the Cyprus economy?
Ambassador Anastasiades: The major issue has been
the wide exposure of the Cypriot banks which have had to
accept the so-called “haircut” [big reduction in the debt]
along with other lenders.
Diplomatic Connections: Cypriot banks were among
the lenders?
Ambassador Anastasiades: Very much so. The three
largest Cypriot banks were quite exposed to that debt. A
large part of their operations was based on Greek bonds, so
they lost billions. And that has had a significant impact on
the Cypriot economy; these banks had to be capitalized and
that requires quite a substantial capital, and as a second-
ary consequence of that the wider economy of Cyprus has
been affected even though the fundamentals of the Cyprus
economy are very sound: our economic history has been
quite bright.
Diplomatic Connections: But as a result of this, did
you need a bailout?
Ambassador Anastasiades: We are in discussions with
the European Union, European Central Bank and the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund, even as we speak.
Diplomatic Connections: Worst-case scenario for
Greece, by which I mean having to drop out of the Eurozone:
is there any danger of Cyprus being dragged down as well?
Ambassador Anastasiades: I do not think so. I hope
that it will not happen for Greece. I know that the Greeks
are very committed to staying in the Eurozone and they are
taking very tough measures with a lot of economic and social
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 2 71
consequences for the people — so the sacrifices are
there. But even in the worse-case scenario I don’t
think Cyprus will follow. Look, the euro is not just
an economic project it’s also a political project,
and I know Greece, Cyprus, and all the European
partners will do their utmost to see that this project
is successful: they don’t want to see the whole
European project starting to unravel. It has been of
great significance for consolidating peace, stability.
Sometimes we take this for granted, but we should
always reflect on it and appreciate it.
Diplomatic Connections: Can I move on to the
most recent U.N.-brokered negotiations on the Cy-
prus problem that have been going on since 2008?
The Cyprus Mail has just called the talks “near
deadlocked.” Would you agree with that and — if
so — what are the primary areas of disagreement?
Ambassador Anastasiades: Just to get the
terms right, Cyprus is one country — that’s interna-
tionally recognized. It is the whole of Cyprus that
entered the European Union, including the part of
Cyprus that is under Turkish military occupation since 1974.
Because of the Turkish occupation, the European Union aquis
— its body of laws and practices — are temporarily suspended
in that part until the solution of the Cyprus problem. But all
citizens of Cyprus, both Greek Cypriots, and Turkish Cypriots
are full European Union citizens.
Diplomatic Connections: To what extent do Turkish
Cypriots now benefit from being members of the EU?
Ambassador Anastasiades: Any Turkish Cypriot
who applies can have a European Union passport, but in
economic terms certain [EU] programs can not apply in that
area. Certainly, the unification of Cyprus will bring much
greater, much needed benefits to Turkish Cypriots.
Diplomatic Connections: But once again the talks are
stalled.
Ambassador Anastasiades: The talks are not going
on. They have been suspended due to the reluctance of the
Turkish Cypriot Community. That leadership, together with
the [Turkish] government in Ankara have said the talks will
not continue while Cyprus holds the presidency. Quite the
opposite, we have asked that the talks be resumed.
Diplomatic Connections: And the primary areas of
disagreement?
Ambassador Anastasiades: We attach the greatest
priority to ending the [Turkish] occupation and to unifying
Cyprus: that is only just. That is to the benefit of all Cypriots
— and in my view it will be in the best interests of Turkey as
well — and of other countries round the world, including the
United States.
Diplomatic Connections: How does the Cyprus govern-
ment want to achieve this?
Ambassador Anastasiades: There is international
agreement that the basis of an agreement should be a bi-
communal, bi-zonal federation with one single sovereignty,
citizenship and international personality. In other words,
one state and a federation, not two states, and that’s where
the difference in the negotiations has been. During the talks,
the position of the Greek Cypriot side was consistent with
this basis; the position of the Turkish Cypriot side, under the
guidance of Ankara was for two states and instead of federa-
tion, confederation. Initially, when Mr. [Mehmet Ali] Talat
was the Turkish Cypriot leader, there were some convergen-
ces on parts of how the state would be governed, on Europe-
an Union matters, and on the economy, but not on security.
The problem has been that after the change of leadership and
under the current leader Mr.[Dervis] Eroglu, not only did
[the Cypriot Turks] not proceed with new convergences, but
the old convergences were abandoned; so since 2010 we re-
main in the same situation, and even went backward. Neither
we nor the international community agree.
Diplomatic Connections: Positioned between the two sides
is a U.N. Peacekeeping Force which has been in place for …
Ambassador Anastasiades: Forty-eight years. Its
mandate is to prevent violence and also to contribute to the
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
maintaining of normality. The size of
the Force is now much smaller than
it used to be: it’s less than a thou-
sand, but was once more than 10,000.
Because with the continued occupation,
the presence in Cyprus of more than 40,000 heavily armed
Turkish troops, the U.N. Force performs an important func-
tion apart from the classic peacekeeping role. It provides an
interface so that cooperation between the two communities
on certain levels can take place.
Diplomatic Connections: Isn’t one of the outstanding is-
sues the question of restitution to Greek Cypriots for proper-
ties on the other side that have been taken over?
Ambassador Anastasiades: The issue of property is
an important chapter in the negotiations. The majority of
the properties on the other side are Greek Cypriot owned,
simply because Greek Cypriots are 80 percent of the popu-
lation. Some have been given to settlers from mainland
Turkey (and there are hundreds of thousands of settlers from
Turkey), or sold to foreign buyers. But the European Court
of Human Rights has repeatedly found that the ownership of
these properties remains with their original [Greek Cypriot]
owners. The transfer of these properties has not conferred
ownership. The original owners may decide that they don’t
want to return to their original properties, so they may seek
compensation.
Diplomatic Connections: So when Mr. Alexander
Downer, the U.N. representative at the negotiations, says that
“many convergences have been reached” is he wrong?
Ambassador Anastasiades: In the early part of the
negotiations several convergences were
achieved. For example, on the federal
structure of the government, on
representation and relations
with the European Union, on the economy, but those conver-
gences were not confirmed when Mr. Eroglu became leader.
Diplomatic Connections: But still a lot has changed in
the relationship between the two communities; for example,
I understand there is a great deal more crossings into each
other’s areas.
Ambassador Anastasiades: In the aftermath of 1974,
there was total segregation enforced by the Turkish. Greek
Cypriots were forced to flee their homes in the area, includ-
ing my family. No Greek Cypriots could cross into the Turk-
ish Cypriot area. In 2003, when Cyprus joined the European
Union there was a relaxation of these restrictions, and since
then there have been millions of crossings both ways. It’s
important that with these millions of crossings there has
never been a violent incident: it shows that the nature of the
problem is not incompatibility between the two communi-
ties. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots lived together for
centuries and had many things in common — and the re-
newed interaction has been quite impressive. There are now
many communal groups — youth groups, professionals.
Diplomatic Connections: So why is it so hard to come
together formally?
Ambassador Anastasiades: The dominant power
in the occupied area is Turkey. [The Turks] have political,
economic and certainly military control. The key to a solu-
tion in Cyprus is in Ankara. If Ankara decides to cooperate
constructively in a solution to the Cyprus problem, we will
find a solution.
Diplomatic Connections: How does Turkey’s application
to join the European Union impact on the Cyprus problem,
given the fact that Cyprus itself is already
a member of the Union?
Ambassador Anastasiades: We
think it provides a catalyst — a
positive framework for
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 2 73
Turkey to do the right thing in Cyprus. The European Union’s
decision to start accession negotiations with Turkey was taken
with the concurrence of Cyprus; it could not have been taken
if Cyprus had said no. Sometimes there’s a misunderstanding
that Cyprus doesn’t wish to see Turkey as a member of the
European Union. Quite the opposite. Cyprus supports the
accession of Turkey — but Turkey has to fulfill its obligations
vis-à-vis the European Union and all its member states.
Diplomatic Connections: But the negotiations for Tur-
key’s admission are ongoing.
Ambassador Anastasiades: The problem with the Tur-
key accession talks has been Turkey’s failure to comply with
those obligations. Turkey has continuously refused to comply
with what is called the Additional Protocol of the Customs
Union, which is to allow Cypriot ships and aircraft to use
Turkish ports and airports. That’s one of the obligations that
Turkey agreed to in the negotiations, but has yet to fulfill.
And because that has not been fulfilled to date, a number of
other developments have been frozen. But Turkey has also
not responded to the European Union’s call to normalize rela-
tions with all the member states, including Cyprus. Turkey
blocks Cyprus membership to a number of international
organizations to which it is a member, and Cyprus is not, for
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example, OECD (Organization of Economic and Commercial
Development), and even innocuous organizations like the
International Meteorological Organization.
Diplomatic Connections: So what is the Cyprus
position on Turkey possibly becoming a member of the
European Union?
Ambassador Anastasiades: We have said that if Turkey
cooperates we will respond positively and go along with its
accession. Turkey’s accession does have a positive dynamic,
and if Turkey cooperates we will react positively and promote
its accession.
Diplomatic Connections: How about the position of the
United States regarding the Cyprus problem?
Ambassador Anastasiades: The position of the United
States is well known. The United States supports a solution
to the Cyprus problem with the establishment of a bi-zonal,
bi-communal federation. The United States has an important
role to play as the main global power, and the influence it has
with the main players. A Cyprus that is reunited and free of
the control or domination of another country will serve the
best security interests of the United States.
Diplomatic Connections: Thank you, Ambassador
Anastasiades. n
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
Recently, the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative held a fund-
raiser at The Dubliner on Capitol Hill to celebrate the 10th
Anniversary of the founding of the non-profit by the Irish
philanthropist Niall Mellon in 2002. With the theme “Building
Homes, Building Hope,” the event showcased the work of the
organization in recruiting over 18,000 volunteers from Ireland,
the United Kingdom, the United States and other nations to
build nearly 20,000 homes for impoverished families in the
townships of South Africa. As a result of the non-profit’s work,
families and children previously living in dilapidated shacks
without running water or electricity now enjoy healthier, more
secure lives. Benefits of homeownership include a reduction
in disease, greater family stability and better conditions for
children to advance academically. The organization is currently
working in 23 townships. By the end of this year, over 100,000
residents will have been housed as a result of the work of the
organization.
The Ambassador of Ireland, His Excellency Michael
Collins, spoke at the event, praising the work of the Niall
Mellon Townships Initiative in alleviating poverty and
spreading international goodwill. He also expressed pride in
the volunteers from Ireland and other nations who sacrifice
their time to help provide access to a better life for the poor-
est families of South Africa.
Also attending was His Excellency Dr. Akec Khoc,
Ambassador of the Republic of South Sudan, who received a
warm welcome as the first Ambassador of the new nation to
the United States.
A special “Superstar” Award was presented posthumous-
ly to the late Congressman Donald Payne for his passionate
support of the work of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative.
The honor was accepted by his son, Councilman Donald
Payne, Jr. of New Jersey, who spoke of his father’s love and
respect for the people of both South Africa and Ireland. An
award was also given to former Congressman Jack Fields
of the 21st Century Group, an outstanding supporter who
hosted an event for U.S. volunteers and sponsors following
the “Building Blitz” in the townships last year.
Representative Donna Christensen, the first female medi-
cal doctor in the history of the U.S. Congress, also attended
the gathering. Congresswoman Christensen, who served
as an honorary co-chair of the event, is well known for her
leadership in promoting improvements in global health.
For further information about the work of the non-profit,
contact [email protected]
by Kerry McKenney
From top, clockwise: Ned Michalek from Rep. Eliot Engel’s office pays tribute to the late Congressman Payne, as Councilman Donald Payne, Jr. looks on; Stella O’Leary of Irish American Democrats and Rep. Donna Christensen; Amanda Makulec of John Snow, Inc. and Erin Houston of Devex; Kerry McKenney of the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative, Councilman Payne, George Burke of Rep. Gerry Connolly’s office, Ned Michalek, Gerry Lamb of General Dynamics Corporation; Ambassador Michael Collins of Ireland and Ambassador Akec Khoc of South Sudan. Ph
otos
by
Kelly
Hou
ston
Phot
os b
y Ke
lly H
oust
on
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
by Monica Fr im
Photography by Dr. John Fr im
Diversifolius poplar trees flank the road near Korla. Also known as desert poplars, these
hardy trees can survive up to 3,000 years in the sand and wind of the Taklamakan desert.
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 2 77
Diplomatic Connections is
now dedicating a section of
each publication to national
and international destinations.
We are continuously asked
for more information about
different places to travel to.
For our first feature, join
Monica Frim on her excursion
by Land Rover along the
ancient Silk Road from
Kyrgyzstan through the heart
of China to Beijing — a
4,400-mile journey in the
footsteps of Marco Polo.
Silk. The very word stirs the senses with images of soft, smooth, fabric —
downy light, exotic, sensual and cool to the touch. It causes the mind to wander east, to the Far East, to a forgotten time when camel caravans carried not only silk but also gold and silver, precious stones (jade and lapis lazuli), lacquer ware, porcelain, paper and gunpowder along an elaborate network of roads. It wasn’t just a single road, but many Silk Roads or “Seidenstraßen”, so named by the German botanist and cartographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877. The roads spidered across deserts and over mountains, from Chang’an to Constantinople (today’s, Xian and Istanbul), and across Asia as far as India, Persia, Arabia, Greece and Rome. It was a two-way exchange. While Chinese products trundled west, exotic foodstuffs and perfumes wafted east: myrrh, frankincense, saffron, dates and pistachios. Even horses and caged lions could be bartered for a simple worm’s finely spun thread. But the power of silk extended well beyond trade by integrating the skills and
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Thousands of camels drive a thriving tourist business in the sand dunes of Mingsha Shan Mountain, a mere stone’s throw
from the City of Dunhuang.
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philosophies of diverse societies while simultaneously
storming political boundaries and causing alliances to be
forged culturally and economically. It imported and exported
religions and exerted its power in a series of journeys, often
taking years to reach an endpoint in Rome. Few merchants
(Marco Polo, excepted) endured the entire journey. Instead,
various middlemen relayed goods from one end of the route
to the other and many palms were greased along the way.
My journey along the Silk Road began in Bishkek, the
capital of Kyrgyzstan, and my camel of choice was the iron
horse: first a chauffeur-driven Mitsubishi for circling Lake
Issyk Kul, the second highest lake in the world after Lake
Titicaca, then a self-driven Land Rover Discovery for breach-
ing the heart of China. The changeover happened at Koch-
kor, a village south of Lake Issyk Kul, between Bishkek and
the border with China. Here my husband John and I joined a
two-car convoy of Land Rovers that had started their jour-
ney months earlier in Venice. We were seasoned Canadian
travelers, having travelled to more than 80 countries over
the years, but newbies to this group, which also included
Austrian, American, South African and Chinese participants.
They had joined the caravan along different waypoints, some
in Venice, others in Istanbul. Two of them would also be ter-
minating their journeys at different endpoints, the South Afri-
can, in Naryn, and the Chinese in Kashgar, the westernmost
city of China. Our travel bonds would be forged most closely
with the Austrian and American with whom we would share
driving a vehicle, sometimes for as much as 10 hours a day.
The “Drive the Silk Road” expedition is the brainchild
of Yue Chi, a Chinese transplant to Toronto and her South
African husband, David Visagie. Together, they form an in-
domitable team. While David’s skills as a Land Rover special-
ist ensure that the vehicles are always in top condition, Yue
is the driving force behind AAST, a travel company based in
Canada and South Africa. As trip leaders go she ranks among
the best. She thrives on coming up with innovative solutions
to problems that could reduce a lesser traveler to tears. Au-
tocratic border officials? No problem. Missing visas? A mere
Crescent Moon Lake has been gurgling up through the sand dunes of Mingsha Shan for thousands of years. Although it’s water level has dropped more than 25 feet in the last four decades, it has never been buried by sand.
John and Monica Frim join a modern camel caravan in the dunes of Mingsha Shan Mountain at the edge of the Gobi desert.
A Silk Road expedition vehicle shares the highway with sheep and cattle in Kyrgyzstan.
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hiccup. Lost luggage? Yue will track it. Ornery police? Yue
will even convince them to recant citations for minor traffic
violations. Nothing unnerves her. No matter the gravity of the
situation, she’d kick start a resolution with her mantra, “Don’t
worry, don’t worry. There are no problems, only solutions.”
Her creative thought processes extended to overcoming any
bureaucratic snafu or unpredictable situation — cheerfully!
She commanded our full respect and complete trust.
When John and I touched down at Manas International
Airport in Kyrgyzstan at 2:30 a.m., Yue and her team were
somewhere deep within the fabled trading posts of Uzbekistan
— spinning dreams or snoring off their day’s adventures. It
would be at least three days before we’d all meet at Kochkor. In
the meantime, Yue had arranged for her partner in Kyrgyzstan,
Elena Dudashvili, the director of Asia Mountains International
Travel Centre, to supply us with a driver and guide.
Ah, this was the life. For three glorious days Marat drove
us through a landscape of changing terrain and civiliza-
tions while Maria enthralled us with tales of battles won and
lost, relics found and restored, and political truces forged
among disparate peoples. For Kyrgyzstan is a smorgasbord of
cultures. The word “Kyrgyz” stems from an old Turkic word
for “40” and refers to the forty clans that united in the early
800s AD against the Uyghurs who once dominated most of
Central Asia. Today the tiny landlocked country counts Kyr-
Twelve dancers merge to appear as a single entity with many arms in a performance of the Goddess of
Mercy dance at a Tang Dynasty Revue.
Night Market in Dunhuang.
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gyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Ukrainians, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Dungans
(Chinese Muslims), Tatars and Germans among its five and
a half million people. Russia remains an official language.
Kyrgyz was only added as a second official language in 1991
after the country’s secession from the Soviet Union.
Bishkek still bears monuments of Tsarist and later, So-
viet rule. Maria cheerfully guided us among the city’s large,
concrete public squares with their statuary odes to political
pageantry, but with leafy parks and gardens that incongruously
softened the Soviet penchant for austerity. Then off we were
to the Burana Tower, an eleventh century minaret that once
guarded the Silk Road 50 miles east of Bishkek. We spiraled
up the tower’s dark and narrow staircase, fingering its rough
brick walls for balance, then popped like squeezed soap into
sunshine and vistas of snow-capped mountains and valleys rip-
pling with green. In the other direction, sixth century bal-bals,
stone figures reminiscent of miniature moai (the stone statues
of Easter Island), marked the graves of nomadic Turks.
The road skirted the red sandstone cliffs of the Boom
Gorge that once took caravans through the Tian Shan Moun-
tains, around Lake Issyk Kul and onwards to China. Dusk fell
in progressive shades of red, turning the canyons from amber
to purple. It would be morning before we’d be able to walk
to the lakeshore, wiggle our toes in the ice cold water, which,
nevertheless, never freezes, and amble among the methodi-
cally laid out vacation homes that are part of the north shore
hotel complex where we spent the night.
Surrounded on all sides by mountains, Lake Issyk Kul
dazzles like an oiled blue stone. It takes about a day to
circumnavigate the 113- by 37-mile lake with excursions to
Karakol, an old Russian military outpost at the lake’s east-
ern end that now serves as a jumping off point for treks in
the Tian Shan Mountains or the Djety Oguz Valley. Here the
craggy contours of red sandstone rock formations bear names
like Broken Heart and Seven Bulls, inspired by legends of
love gone awry and revengeful slaughter.
Our time with Marat and Maria ended much too soon.
In one prolonged goodbye embrace at Kochkor, my good
memories of the past three days surged like fire foam: eating
strawberries fresh from a field, bobbing like corks in the tiny
privately-owned Salt Lake south of Lake Issyk Kul, scrambling
over rocks at Fairy Tale Canyon, listening to Maria playing
piano in the salon of our guesthouse in Kajy-Say, and most
of all, engaging in private intergenerational “girl-talk” with
Maria out of earshot of the men. We transcended our political,
cultural, religious, language and age differences, proving that
people are people irrespective of backgrounds. I packaged the
thought for China.
That night in Kochkor, Yue mustered the troops for a
genuine Kyrgyz feast in a yurt, the white felt tents used by
nomads throughout the centuries. We gorged on doughy
manti filled with ground beef and onions; samosa-like samsi,
stuffed with meat, cheese and cabbage; beshbarmak, beef
boiled in its own broth, then served with vegetables and
noodles; and platters of fruits and berries. But the crowning
glory was not a foodstuff, but a rousing rendition of “Ma-
nas” in song. In its entirety, the epic poem that tells of the
hero Manas’s feats and battles to unify the Kyrgyz tribes is
more than 20 times longer than Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad
combined. Our hostess’ teenaged granddaughter spewed out
a throaty percussive rendition, somewhat shorter than the
poem’s original million plus lines, that sent the yurt walls
quivering and my arm hairs saluting the invisible presence
of the legendary Manas himself. The evening spun into a
frenzy of song and dance — a dozen tired travelers in jeans
and rumpled traveling clothes swept into a musical eddy
with three proud generations of Kyrgyz in traditional padded
velour vests, white-felted kalpak hats, and gossamer dresses
with multi-tasseled conical headdresses.
If there’s one thing that sets AAST apart from other tour
companies, it’s the opportunities for genuine interactions
with local people. An impromptu stop at a nomad camp near
the Dolon Pass provided us with an up-close encounter with
rosy-cheeked horse herders as well as my first proffered cup of
Left to right: Girls learn embroidery skills at a young age in Minfeng.; Stretching noodle dough at the Sunday Animal Market in Kashgar.; Three generations of a Kyrgyz family sing traditional songs in their yurt.
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fermented mare’s milk, called koumiss. Gentle reader, I cannot
be kind: after a tentative sip, my palate simply went on strike.
Yue, however, downed the entire cup. “It’s good,” she said.
Between Naryn in Kyrgyzstan and Kashgar in China lies
a No Man’s Land of formidable mountains, barbed wire fences
and about a hundred miles between the two countries’ formal
border patrols. Up, up we climbed over the arduous Torugart
Pass that, at 12,310 feet above sea level, provides a snowy
separation of countries. After six hours of combined Kyrgyz
and Chinese border formalities we descended into the bustling
city of Kashgar. Never was a five-star hotel more welcomed!
Kashgar is a timeless city at the convergence of forks of
the Silk Road in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Eight centuries after Marco Polo first set foot in this wild
west corner, Kashgar still feels like a medieval market town.
Its Sunday animal market bustles with goats, sheep, cows
and bulls hauled in and out in trucks or tiny flat beds pulled
by motorcycles and sometimes bicycles. Entire lamb car-
casses hang from hooks until they are cleaved by axe-bearing
butchers and sold raw or dropped into cauldrons of bub-
bling stews. Noodle makers pull wads of limp dough like
skeins of wool, stretching them into skipping rope lengths
of intricate loops and twists. Farmers shear sheep on dusty
mats. Tinsmiths show off knives and old locks. Young boys
hawk shiny, oiled blue stones and necklaces that may or may
not be lapis lazuli. They blend gently into the jangle of bleats
and moos and brays. There’s an odd paradoxical calm to all
the fussing and haggling. Seasoned negotiators simply place
their hands up each other’s sleeves and tap out a deal so that
bystanders are unaware of the price eventually settled on.
Kashgar’s residents are predominantly Uyghur Muslims
living in an uneasy peace with China’s predominantly Han
people. But change is on the way. The animal market keeps
moving farther into the countryside as the city expands to
make way for an influx of Han Chinese. The crumbling mud
walls of the Old City on the hillside are being torn down and
replaced with modern bricks, mudded over to simulate the
old, and new restaurants and hotels are cropping up through-
out the city. As trade and tourism pull in the cash, the future
of Kashgar’s past hangs in delicate limbo.
From Kashgar, we followed the dusty southern arm of
the Silk Road to Khotan, then on to Minfeng and the daunt-
ing 324-mile drive across the world’s second largest living
desert, the Taklamakan. The word “takla” means enter and the
word “makan” means no exit. No self-respecting silk merchant
braved this route: caravans took either the northern or south-
ern arm around the desert, for the Taklamakan was historically
harsher than the Gobi. Today artificial oases in the form of tiny
glacier-blue houses, spaced almost three miles apart, line the
entire route. They are the homes of government-sponsored
workers who take on the tasks of irrigating the roadside plant-
ings that hold back the shifting sands from the road.
The Turpan Basin is China’s lowest and hottest spot, a
jumping off point to sun-baked marvels such as Jiaohe, an
ancient stone city carved into a rocky plateau reminiscent of
Jordan’s Petra, and Flaming Mountain, an unclimbable rock
mass so hot that even birds won’t fly over it. By contrast, a
visit to a nearby underground canal called karez was a cool-
ing break. Karezes irrigate an extensive grape-growing district
in the desert by way of miles of underground canals that
bring water from the mountains to the valley.
From Minfeng to Beijing, China unfurled historical
and geological marvels that would make any archaeology
buff salivate with wonder. At Dunhuang, on the edge of the
Gobi Desert, we rode camels across the dunes of Mingshan
Mountain. Nearby, in the Mogao Grottos we saw some of the
best examples of Buddhist artwork in the world in sandstone
caves dating from 366 AD and built over 10 dynasties. Far-
ther east, the city of Zhangye in the center of the Silk Road’s
Hexi Corridor boasted the largest reclining Buddha in Gansu
Province. Langzhou afforded a boat ride on the Yellow River
and a walk in the gardens surrounding the famous stone
sculpture of the Mother Yellow River.
China is a study in contrasts. Dirt roads and superhigh-
Left to right: A Kyrgyz matriarch in traditional dress.; Uyghur young men in Kashgar.; A Uyghur woman and child. Uyghurs are the predominant ethnic group in Xinjiang, an area formerly known as Chinese Turkistan or Uyghuristan. They speak a Turkic language and use a script similar to Arabic.; Street vendors in Khotan, China.
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
ways. Poverty-stricken villages with no running water and
expanding cities in perpetual construction. Dry scrub and lush
mountains. Mega rich and mega poor. You see it all between
Lanzhou and Xian, a 500-mile-or-so stretch of tunnels, tolls
and tarmac that shrink the country into a one-day lesson in ge-
ography. With each tunnel (I counted 50!) we enter a greener
landscape, as the tunnels themselves evolve from west to east,
from simple holes cut through barren rocks to lushly vegetated
canopies that open onto vistas of government-sponsored en-
vironmental enhancement. Entire cities appear plunked in the
desert. Acres of wind turbines roll by our windows along with
fields of melons, beans and wheat. Elsewhere, barren moun-
tainsides are laboriously being terraced and artificially greened
with expansive irrigation systems. We see geography changing
before our eyes, history in the remaking as the deserts of the
past give way to futuristic cityscapes. The dense populations
of the east are seeping into the west in ambitious resettlement
projects that boggle the imagination.
But if our all-day drive was a lesson in future technol-
ogy, our drive through the old city wall of Xian took us back
2,000 years to the eastern terminus and cradle of the Silk
Road. Begun during the Han dynasty, the Silk Road reached
the epitome of power under the Tang Dynasty from the 7th
to the 10th centuries when Chang’an, as the city was then
called, was one of the grandest cosmopolitan cities of the era.
Today the ancient capital’s biggest drawing cards are some
10,000 life-size terra cotta warriors and horses that predate
the Silk Road by roughly 300 years. They were built for the
afterlife of the Emperor Qin who reigned from 221 BC to 206
BC, but only discovered in 1974 by poor farmers digging a
well. Today the farmers are museum curators who also sell
books on the warriors and pose for tourists for a fee.
We spent hours wandering among warriors, temples,
ancient walls and attending an extravagant revue of Tang
Dynasty court music and dances. It wasn’t enough time.
Although Xian marked the official end of our Silk Road
journey, Beijing beckoned. We stopped over night at the
ancient walled city of Pingyao, an incredibly well preserved
city whose layout dates from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Its crowded streets were a perfect introduction to the excesses
of Beijing: crowds, traffic, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden
City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. We ran
ourselves ragged squeezing them all into a full day of guided
tours.
The South Silk Road Restaurant may possibly be Bei-
jing’s finest restaurant. The name alone befitted the end of
a journey that had always been a step shy of overwhelming
but bang on as one of the greatest land routes on earth. But
if overwhelming didn’t quite describe the journey, it suited
perfectly our final celebratory meal. Surprise toppled surprise
as a procession of some 50 dishes, all artfully presented, ar-
rived at our table: a variety of shredded or thinly sliced fish,
paper thin cuts of beef, pork and chicken, duck tongues,
smoked eel, bewildering vegetables, exotic fruits, little flans,
sweets and pastries. In typical Chinese style, the soups came
last — different ones for men and women. I can’t vouch for
the men’s virgin male chicken soup ladled over a solitary scal-
lop, but my snow frog soup with diced pears was a delightful
culinary surprise, the translucent meat mild with a velvety
texture that melted on the tongue. The meal was just too
marvelous to end.
Just like our journey along the Silk Road. n
“Drive the Silk Road” is an annual event organized by AAST Inc. The full adventure trip spans roughly three months — from the beginning of April to the beginning of July. The route is divided into four segments that can vary slightly from year to year. Travelers may participate in any number of segments or the entire trip. For more information contact: [email protected].
Left: The Mogao Grottos are a shrine of art treasures. Begun in the fourth century AD, the complex comprises 492 caves. Inside, the walls and ceilings are covered in colourful murals of historical and cultural events.; Right: Statue of the Mother Yellow River in Lanzhou.
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The Olympic athletes are back home with
their medals, and memories of triumphs
or failures. In Britain, celebrations for Team
GB’s phenomenal string of athletic successes
were winding down, and the euphoria has
given way to a debate over how Britain could
do even better in 2016 in Brazil.
One British newspaper suggested that
the London 2012 Olympics had restored the
popularity of the Union Jack. The collective
flag of the British Isles had lost favor as grow-
ing separatist sentiment had boosted the re-
gional flags of England, scotland, and Wales.
But suddenly, being British had become
By Roland Flamini
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II meets actor Daniel Craig. They joined together to do an unprecedented opening for the London Olympics 2012. Craig has won rave reviews as James Bond in “Casino Royale.”
Torchbearer 170 Wai-Ming Lee passes the Olympic Flame to Torchbearer 171 John Hulse (third from right) in front of Buckingham Palace in the presence of Prince Wil-liam, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry on the Torch Relay leg through The City of Westminster, during Day 69 of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay on July 26, 2012, in London, England. The Olympic Flame was on Day 69 of a 70-day relay involving 8,000 torchbearers covering 8,000 miles.
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trendy — helped considerably by the BBC’s coverage that
kept the spotlight firmly on the Brits’ performance, just as
NBC coverage focused on Team USA.
What remains in the memory of the London Olympics
is as always episodic, a kaleidoscope of images and incidents,
starting with the remarkable “cameo” by Queen Elizabeth II
(not to mention her three corgis: Monty, Willow, and Holly)
in the opening ceremony receiving James Bond (Daniel Craig)
at Buckingham Palace, and then supposedly parachuting
from a helicopter into the Olympic Stadium.
The queen herself is said to have volunteered to play a
role when the organizers came round to ask permission to land
a helicopter at Buckingham Palace. Not the least remarkable
thing about the taping, made in March before the Queen’s dia-
mond Jubilee celebrations, is that it stayed secret — even from
family members, as Prince Harry revealed recently.
At the Olympic Stadium, the 85-year-old monarch sat
through the long opening ceremony, but appeared to some to
be scowling as a group of deaf children serenaded her with
an extremely touching rendition of the national anthem. But
some people interpreted the queen’s countenance as a scowl;
however, what many may not realize is that it’s actually an
expression she has been known to adopt to avoid showing
too much emotion in public.
After that, the sequence of images speeds up — Jamai-
can Usain Bolt’s record breaking dash in the 100 meters,
earning him the unofficial title of the fastest man in the
world, America’s super-athletic teenage gymnasts, cool as
cucumbers, spinning in the air and bending their bodies
in seemingly impossible positions, U.S. swimmer Michael
Phelps scooping up gold medals with laconic good humor,
Australian Sally Pearson’s resounding screech when the photo
finish confirmed that she had won the 100 meter hurdles,
Andy Murray’s success at Wimbledon — at last — and later
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, meets Finn class gold medal winner Ben Ainslie of Great Britain on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Weymouth & Portland Venue at Weymouth Harbour on August 6, 2012, in Weymouth, England.
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tweeting a picture of his two dogs wearing his gold and silver
Olympic medals (was that cute or a desecration?).
The sportsmanship was for the most part exemplary.
“Inspire a generation” was the official slogan of the London
Olympics and somehow it doesn’t seem as much of a cliché
as when it was first touted a year ago. There was the moment
when Grenada runner Kitani James paid tribute to fellow ath-
lete Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee from South Africa,
in front of a packed stadium by swapping bibs (name tags).
And for the Brits there was the embrace between British cy-
clist Victoria Pendleton and Australian Anna Meares, ending
years of bitter rivalry between them.
Horse Guards Parade was transformed into a volleyball
stadium with a rock concert atmosphere. The sand was piled
high, pop music blared and the bikini-clad competitors
never lacked an audience. Where in May, Queen Elizabeth II
watched the traditional panoply of the Trooping of the Color,
Misty-May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, reigned.
Track events were held in the purpose-built “birdcage”
Olympic Stadium in rundown, economically depressed Strat-
ford, East London. The venue was a hopeful lure for develop-
ers to rescue the area from its plight.
Britain’s young royals were everywhere. Photos and
videos of Prince William, the heir to the throne, and his
iconic young wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, cheer-
ing Team GB at some athletic event or other were part of the
daily ration of Olympic imagery. The highly visible presence
of Britain’s future king was a symbol of the British monarchy’s
involvement in the life of the nation: Prince William had
been part of the successful team that had successfully lobbied
the International Olympic Committee to hold the 2012 Sum-
mer Olympics in London.
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Zara Phillips (daughter of Princess Anne and Captain
Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II) of Great Britain
riding High Kingdom in action in the Show Jumping Equestrian event on Day 4 of the London
2012 Olympic Games at Greenwich Park on July 31, 2012, in London, England.
88 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
1. Brooklyn Beckham, Cruz Beckham, British cyclists Laura Trott and Jason Kenny kissing in background, David Beckham and Romeo Beckham during the Beach Volleyball Olympic Games at Horse Guards Parade on August 8, 2012, in London, England.
2. Kevin Mayer of France celebrates during the Men’s Decathlon Javelin Throw on Day 13 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 9, 2012, in London, England.
3. Robert Harting of Germany celebrates winning gold in the Men’s Discus Throw Final.
4. Jessica Ennis of Great Britain (C) celebrates winning gold in the Women’s Heptathlon with fellow heptath-letes on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 4, 2012, in London, England.
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5. Oscar Pistorius of South Africa waits for the baton while compet-ing in the Men’s 4 x 400m Relay Round 1 heats on Day 13 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium.
6. Trey Hardee of the United States reacts during the Men’s Decathlon Javelin Throw.
7. Kim Ekdahl du Rietz #25 of Sweden is defended by Michael Knud-son (L) #14 and Thomas Mogensen (R) #2 of Denmark during the Men’s Quarterfinal match between Sweden and Denmark on Day 12 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at The Basketball Arena.
8. Usain Bolt of Jamaica leads Yohan Blake of Jamaica on his way to winning gold in the Men’s 200m Final on Day 13 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium.
9. Peter Burling (R) and Blair Tuke (L) of New Zealand celebrate winning silver in the Men’s 49er Sailing on Day 12 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Weymouth & Portland Venue at Weymouth Harbour on August 8, 2012, in Weymouth, England.
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The family turned out in force to watch silver
medalist Zara Phillips compete in the equestrian
events: in the stands was her grandfather, Prince
Philip, her mother Princess Anne — Queen Eliza-
beth II’s daughter — and assorted royal cousins.
But few spectators at the event were aware of the
underlying personal drama. Also watching, but
apart, was Zara’s father, Mark Phillips (Princess
Anne’s first husband), long-time trainer of the U.S.
equestrian team.
Meanwhile, as part of its wall-to-wall coverage,
the BBC has collected some of the marginal facts of
the games. For example, the Royal Mail (British Post
Office) has painted one of the familiar red mail pill
boxes gold in the hometown of every British gold
medal winner to signal that this is the home of a
champion. Victorian novelist William Makepeace
Thackeray, who ran The Royal Mail and introduced
the pill boxes, would probably have liked that! The
Post Office has also issued a stamp for each gold
medalist in Team GB and had them on sale in 500
post offices within 24 hours of the event.
It’s not in the Oxford Dictionary yet, but the
BBC says commentators on the Games, have further
consolidated the use of “medal” as a verb, as in
Opposite: 1. Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain celebrates winning the Gold medal in the Men’s Keirin Track Cycling Final on Day 11 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Velodrome.2. Oscar Pistorius (L) of South Africa hugs Kirani James (R) of Grenada after the Men’s 400m
semifinal on Day 9 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium.3. Gold Medallists Conor Dwyer, Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens and Ryan Lochte of the United
States after winning gold in the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final on Day 4 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre.
4. Kai Qin of China competes in the Men’s 3m Springboard Diving Preliminary on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre.
5. U.S. swimmers Ryan Lochte (C), Conor Dwyer (L), Ricky Berens (R) and Michael Phelps react after they won gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final during the swimming event.
6. Krisztian Berki of Hungary competes on the horse during the Artistic Gymnastics Men’s Pommel Horse Final on Day 9 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena.
Above: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, embrace after Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain win the gold and a new world record in the Men’s Team Sprint Track Cycling final during Day 6 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Velodrome on August 2, 2012, in London, England.
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1. Sally Pearson of Australia leads Phylicia George of Canada and Nevin Yanit of Turkey during the Women’s 100m Hurdles Final.
2. Gabrielle Douglas competes on the beam.
3. Tom Slingsby of Australia celebrates winning gold in the Men’s Laser Sailing on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Weymouth & Portland Venue at Weymouth Harbour on August 6, 2012, in Weymouth, England.
4. Spice Girls perform during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in London on August 12, 2012. Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympic Games.
5. Victoria Beckham of Spice Girls performs during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in London on August 12, 2012.
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93
“Phelps has medalled again.” The innovation made a
tentative appearance at the Australian Games 12 years
ago, gained strength in the Chinese Games in 2008,
and is now accepted usage. Sports writers are now giv-
ing the same treatment to “podium.”
The British government had hoped that the Olym-
pics would pick up where the Queen’s Jubilee celebra-
tions had left off in raising the spirits of a nation facing
economic straits. As Team GB’s medal count rose to
somewhat unexpected levels so did public enthusiasm
for the games. “A sea of emotion was omnipresent in
the [British] newspapers,” reported the French news-
paper Le Monde somewhat snidely. But there were
also somber warnings from economists that when the
cheering stopped, the road to recovery would still be a
serious challenge.
And yet there was a lot to be proud of, from the
somewhat whimsical blockbuster opening ceremony
celebrating bucolic and industrial Britain (but somehow
forgetting imperial Britain) to the multiple medaling
of Team GB, with notions of regional independence
temporarily shelved and even a return to the imperial
anthem Rule Britannia. Not bad for a country the size
of Oregon. n
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5
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