Diplomatic Connections September-October 2012 Issue

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

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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.


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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.


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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.


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


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.

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2012SAVE THE DATE

Diplomatic Connections is Hosting Another

On October 30, 2012

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2013SAVE THE DATE

On March 12, 2013

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On April 11, 2013

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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

[email protected]

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.

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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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D I P L O M AT I C CO 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 25

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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.



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.”

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29


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


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


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-


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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.


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


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


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


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.

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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.

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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.”

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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-

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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.


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

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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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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


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


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


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-


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.


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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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.


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


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


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


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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Where your world comes together

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


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


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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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Authentic International Education – Rich in the Arts, Languages, and Technology

202.829.3700 • [email protected] • www.britishschoolofwashington.org

British School of Washington

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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92

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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