Slovenian Envoy Doesn’t Run Away From Challenges Most ambassadors struggle to find the time for an occasional jog, let alone a marathon—let alone several marathons. But Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s envoy in Washington, has coupled his interest in running with his passion to help landmine victims into a full-fledged marathon mission. This year, he’ll enter two half marathons and two full marathons to raise money for landmine rehabilitation in Southeastern Europe, which is still littered with the deadly remnants of the Balkan conflict. The marathon effort isn’t being taken lightly by the ambassador, who admits he was daunted by the prospect of turning an occasional hobby into a 13-mile endurance test—and that’s just the first “half” marathon. “That sounds so easy, the ‘half marathon,’” Zbogar joked. “I hope after the first one I’ll still want to run the second one.” But the ambassador seems to enjoy the sport, having had a taste of the experience last year while running the Army Ten-Miler around the Pentagon. From there, the idea began to form. The ambassador had already planned to visit several U.S. states that have large Slovenian populations or honorary consuls, in particular to discuss Slovenia’s upcoming presidency of the European Union in 2008, so he decided to combine the trips with his newfound curiosity in marathon running. Then he took the concept one step further, asking, “Why not just run but try to raise some money? And we have in Slovenia this trust fund for de-mining and mine victims’ assistance that’s now the leading trust fund for taking the landmines out of the ground,” Zbogar explained. “What they came up with is a project on the rehabilitation of child victims of landmines from the Balkans.” Although the details are still being finalized, the funds that Zbogar raises will bring children to Slovenia to either receive prosthetic limbs or participate in programs that will teach them skills for their disabilities. “And I talked to the State Department and they also got excited and they promised to match everything that I raise,” the ambassador added, “so it’s an evolving project so to say.” The endeavor officially kicks off this upcoming weekend in Texas with the Austin Marathon, in which the ambassador will run the half-marathon portion. He then heads over to Knoxville, Tenn., for another half marathon, and in May he runs the first of two full marathons in Cleveland, which boasts the largest Slovenian community in the United States, according to the ambassador, who said he hopes the community will come out to show their support. The entire effort concludes back in Washington, D.C., with the Marine Corps Marathon in October—a fitting end, Zbogar said, given that Slovenia maintains peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. In the meantime, the project has put Zbogar on a strict training regimen that includes five- to seven-mile jogs three times during the week, and lengthier runs on the weekends, with Saturdays currently averaging about 7 miles and Sundays tallying 14 miles to prepare his body for the 26 miles he will ultimately have to run later this year. In addition to the sheer physical challenge, Zbogar has the added pressure of time constraints as a busy ambassador. “It’s a big sacrifice now that I’m waking up at 6 [a.m.] and running outside in the dark. And sometimes I wonder how I got myself into this,” the congenial ambassador told the Diplomatic Pouch. But the sweat equity is worth it when considering the bigger picture—ridding the Balkan region of landmines, millions of which still threaten the lives of people every day. Although landmines are not an issue in Slovenia, “it’s a huge problem for the region,” Zbogar said. “After the wars in Yugoslavia, there are millions of landmines in the Balkans, and usually the victims of the landmines are mostly civilians. One-third of all the victims are children. “Landmines stay there even when the conflict is over, and they are planted in a way to harm,” he added. “Normalcy cannot come back to the country unless you clear the landmines, at least most of them. And in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, this is a huge problem.” To combat the problem, in 1998 the Slovenian government established the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF), which has now become a leading pioneer in clearing Europe’s southeastern region of the deadly explosives. “It’s a very transparent fund. It’s a very well-functioning fund, and they take only 3 percent for administration costs. Everything else goes for actual de-mining,” Zbogar said, noting that the U.S. State Department contributes about $10 million each year to the fund. In fact, thanks to ITF, Kosovo and Macedonia have been declared mine-free, with Albania soon to follow. That leaves Bosnia and Croatia as the remaining focal points, and Zbogar said the group is making a final push to eradicate all landmines from the region by the end of 2010. Helping its neighbors has also boosted the self-confidence of this small nation of 2 million, according to the ambassador. “For us it’s important because first, for a small country, you cannot really be a global player. You’re not a big power deciding or sorting the issues. But we proved that you can be helpful. “So that’s why I’m running for this project, because it’s a pillar of Slovenian foreign policy, because it’s doing great work with de-mining areas and bringing back economic activity, bringing people back to the areas, and because we need more attention to the issue of landmines because it’s mainly civilians and children who are affected by them,” Zbogar said. The Marshall Legacy Institute based in Virginia will help to channel the funds that Zbogar raises to the ITF, and the ambassador will participate in speaking engagements at the different cities he runs in to further raise awareness of this lingering global threat. For more information on Ambassador Zbogar’s marathon fundraising drive, please visit www.firstgiving.com/AmbZbogar or www.itf-fund.si. Slovenian Ambassador Samuel Zbogar—seen here at a recent press conference on Slovenia’s conversion to the euro at the National Press Club—is running several marathons this year to raise money for landmine victims. Snow Does Not Deter Presidential Visits The federal government going home early and much of the city blanketed with the area’s first snowstorm of the season didn’t hamper several high-profile presidential visits this week—among them the leaders of Lithuania and Liberia. The crowds may have been a bit lighter than usual, but most everyone braved the impending storm on Monday night to toast Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus at his country’s Independence Day reception at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. Earlier in the day, Adamkus met with President Bush to talk about issues such as consolidating democracy in Eastern Europe, strengthening energy independence, instituting a visa-waiver program for Lithuanian citizens, as well as the fight for democracy, particularly as it relates to Afghanistan and Iraq. Freedom was also the theme during the Mayflower reception, which marked the 89th anniversary of the “Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood” following World War I, as well as the 85th anniversary of relations between Lithuania and the United States. “I truly believe that modern Lithuania will grow and prosper only if it is deeply rooted in democratic ideals. Only strong beliefs in centuries-old moral values will allow us to look bravely at the future, create a fellowship between democratic states based on mutual trust, and strengthen cooperation between our two nations,” the president said, noting that Lithuania’s ties to the United States date back to the American Revolutionary War, when Gen. Tadeusz Kosciusko fought alongside the Continental Army and later led the uprising against Russia back home. “This Lithuanian national hero, who fought in the American Revolution together with the Founding Fathers of the United States, understood well that the struggle for the independence of your country would also pave the way for Lithuanian independence. Therefore, when he returned to his homeland in 1784, he gave all of his strength and experience gained in the American Revolution to the Lithuanian cause,” Adamkus said. Turning to present-day struggles, the president spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars during his visit about insecurity in the European Union neighborhood, specifically addressing trans-Atlantic cooperation, improving NATO and energy output, as well as the rise of Russian power. Also making the rounds in Washington, D.C., although tackling very different subjects, was Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president, who reported on the progress her war-torn nation has made after one year in office as Africa’s first elected female head of state. The visit also marked President Bush’s 100th meeting with an African head of state during his six years in office. In addition to the White House, Sirleaf’s whirlwind D.C. tour included the State Department, a private-sector forum with the Corporate Council on Africa and a stop at the World Bank, where she met with President Paul Wolfowitz and pledged to work with the bank to further her government’s agenda, which includes restoring Liberia’s infrastructure and increasing student enrollments, particularly among the war-affected youth, as well as encouraging women to strive for positions of leadership. Sirleaf wraps up her visit tomorrow with speeches at the National Press Club and Voice of America. However, the snow did keep her from one important engagement: the opening of “African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection,” a major exhibition unveiled at the National Museum of African Art on Feb. 13. Sirleaf’s absence though didn’t put a damper on the VIP opening reception, where guests such as former Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner and Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small were treated to an early look at the more than 80 pieces on display from one of the world’s finest collections of African art. Donated to the museum in 2005, the Disney-Tishman collection is renowned for its rare works of traditional African art from throughout the sub-Saharan region and has been instrumental in defining the field of African art history in the United States and elsewhere. A full review of the exhibition will be featured in the April 2007 issue of The Washington Diplomat. Although the snow kept Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from attending the opening of “African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection” at the National Museum of African Art, others did brave the weather for the exhibition debut, including, from left, National Museum of African Art Board Member Edward J. Casselle, Museum Director Sharon F. Patton, and Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire Daouda Diabate. Photo: Janice L. Kaplan Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, right, met with President Bush on Monday during his D.C. visit. Photo: White House photo by Eric Draper D.C. Think Tank Goes Global Think tanks are a natural extension of the Washington landscape, but one prominent think tank is branching out of the nation’s capital and into three other global centers of political activity. In addition to its already-established Moscow office, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is expanding its presence in Europe, Asia and the Middle East by opening operations in three “B”s: Beijing, Beirut and Brussels. It’s all part of Carnegie’s “New Vision” to broaden its influence outside the confines of Washington, D.C., and redefine its mission, an initiative that has already garnered $20 million—notably from the MacArthur and Hewlett foundations as well as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund—putting the endowment halfway toward its financial fundraising goal. The “New Vision” launch was celebrated on Feb. 6 at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel during a luncheon that attracted an array of ambassadors and various international experts, who also turned out to hear keynote speaker Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google USA, talk about the global Internet revolution. “It’s more crucial than ever that our policy counterparts collaborate with each other. Rarely has there been a more important time for international collaboration and understanding,” James Gaither, chairman of the Carnegie Endowment Board of Trustees, said of the “re-conceptualization” of Carnegie into a multinational think tank. “We need to learn and listen—you can’t do that in Washington listening to yourself.” Hence the three new offices, with Brussels serving more as a liaison among the many other think tanks in the Belgian capital, which is also home to the institutions of the European Union. Beijing and Beirut, meanwhile, will enhance Carnegie’s Chinese and Middle Eastern programs and will be modeled after the successful Moscow office, which has been around for more than a decade and now boasts more than 40 staff members. According to Jessica Mathews, the Carnegie Endowment’s president since 1997, the shift in strategy is reflective of Mahatma Gandhi’s motto of “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” “It’s more than a little odd when everything from small business to terrorism to social activism to religion is globalizing … that our sector … has stayed largely national,” Mathews said at the luncheon. “We are not attempting to globalize for the sake of doing so. We are doing it out of very deep conviction that this is the best way we can help advance core U.S. national interests.” She added that U.S. relations with the rest of the world seem to be a low point in history, not just since the Bush administration took office but stretching back to the end of the Cold War. And as a dominant world power, the United States naturally draws “resistance, resentment and often fear. So deep engagement, in our view, is an essential strategy for managing dominance.” Dominance is certainly a concept that Internet giant Google knows a thing or two about. During his keynote address, Google CEO Schmidt talked not only about Google’s evolution into the mega online search engine it is today, but also about how the omnipresence of the Internet will impact the societal fabric of different cultures across the world. Noting that the Internet was once controlled by the elite, Schmidt said today’s universal access to the Web is “empowering, enthralling, exciting and frightening.” He predicted that in about a decade, all recorded media will be available on a single hard drive. But all this technological advancement will also force us to reassess our daily lives, Schmidt said, citing the next wave of development that includes pinpointed advertisements tailored to the phone calls we make and Web sites we visit. It’s all part of an emerging market that will personalize information and knowledge about the consumer, and Schmidt said he wants Google to be a “one-stop shop for all of this.” He also discussed the “paradox” of the Internet as both the “great unifier and great divider,” resulting in “more globalization as well as more tribalization.” The successful entrepreneur posed more questions than answers, but he did raise the perplexing dilemma of privacy in the information age, in which cell phones record images that get splashed across the World Wide Web, presidential hopefuls now announce their candidacies on the Internet, more than a billion people converge on networking sites such as MySpace, and true anonymity ceases to exist. “What happens to privacy when everything is being recorded,” he asked. “I don’t know, but it’s coming.” And as a show of the pervasive nature of technology today, Schmidt’s speech was interrupted some half a dozen times by ringing cell phones. The luncheon was one of several events that day highlighting Carnegie’s transformation, which also featured seminars on China’s military modernization and its relations with Russia and the West, as well as the role of political reform in the Middle East. All of the seminars are, of course, available to watch online at www.carnegieendowment.org. Ambassador of Algeria Amine Kherbi, left, and Ambassador of Iraq Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie attend the launch of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s “New Vision” initiative at the Willard Hotel, which also featured keynote speaker Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google USA (front page). Photos: David Y. Lee and Carnegie Endowment Holocaust Museum Targets Present-Day Tragedy in Darfur The mission of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is not just to look back at history, but to look forward and prevent history from repeating itself. So in addition to its staple exhibitions honoring victims of the World War II Holocaust, the museum has also steadily been expanding its genocide prevention campaign, spotlighting the ongoing crisis in the beleaguered Darfur region of Sudan. In 2004, the museum’s Committee on Conscience declared Darfur a “genocide emergency” and has since followed up with a regular podcast series, “Voices on Genocide Prevention,” a dramatic outdoor photography display that spanned the museum’s exterior walls, as well as other high-profile events, including a visit by actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow earlier this month. It’s all part of an effort to give meaning behind the museum’s philosophy of “never again,” according to John Heffernan, director of the committee’s Genocide Prevention Initiative, who walked the Diplomatic Pouch through the “Our Walls Bear Witness” interactive display. Located inside the museum’s Wexler Learning Center, the exhibit is peppered with vivid images of charred Sudanese villages, diary entries from the refugees, eerily abandoned personal items, and videos chronicling the conflict between government forces, allied militias and rebels that his killed an estimated 200,000 and displaced millions. Heffernan explained that the premise is to have museum visitors emerge from the previous floors with a sense of “how did this all happen?” Then the challenge is to physically navigate them into the Wexler Center, where they realize that “although there is nothing you can do today about what happened 60 years ago, whereby people were being targeted for who they are … you can honor the victims of the Holocaust by trying to stop what’s happening today.” Heffernan said he hopes visitors will channel that sentiment to learn more about the Darfur crisis and “defy genocide in your own way.” And today, one of the most effective ways to combat global tragedy on a local level is through technology, which is a key component of the Darfur display. In fact, much of the material can be viewed online at the museum’s Web site (www.ushmm.org) and clicking on the “Sudan: Staring Genocide in the Face” online exhibition link. There, Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience, documents his visits to Chad to meet with Sudanese refugees. The multimedia aspect of the prevention campaign should especially appeal to the younger generation, which Heffernan credited for building awareness of the issue and “being at the forefront of the Darfur movement.” To further that awareness, Heffernan said the museum is working to expand the Darfur display over the next year, following a two-pronged approach that includes reaching out to the community and educating them on the situation in Sudan. But what actual impact will this increased awareness have on the ground? Heffernan, who has made extensive travels throughout Sudan and the region in addition to his relief work in Afghanistan, Guyana and Croatia, is cautiously optimistic. “The Sudanese don’t want to be this international pariah,” he said, noting that he sees “a small glimmer of hope” in the proposed U.N.-African Union (AU) hybrid peacekeeping force. Nevertheless, progress will require a more concerted international commitment, including a “robust response from the Arab League and Europe,” Heffernan added. “Obviously not enough has been done because people are still dying…. The barometer [of success] will be if people are returning home.” Photographs in the “Our Walls Bear Witness” interactive display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum chronicle the Darfur crisis in Sudan, which the museum declared a “genocide emergency” in 2004. Photos: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Taiwan Honors Its Congressional Caucus As the new U.S. Congress settles in, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) co-hosted a reception on Feb. 6 celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus at the Rayburn House Office Building. In attendance were the evening’s other co-hosts—caucus co-chairs Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Rep. Shelley Berkley (R-Nev.)—along with more than two dozen other House members. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also stopped by to praise Taiwan’s transformation into a democratic and economic powerhouse, and TECRO Rep. David Tawei Lee in turn thanked the Congress for strengthening U.S.-Taiwanese bonds. Those bonds have been tested lately by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian’s recent decision to remove the word “China” in the identifications of official company names and government-run entities—a move the United States denounced for straying from the status quo policy it supports. But the incident probably won’t diminish American interest in the economically prosperous island. In fact, the public can get a glimpse of Taiwan in a new photography exhibit that captures the scenic and urban landscapes of this Maryland-size state, which possesses both the world’s tallest building and highest mountain in East Asia. The free exhibit, “Enchanting Taiwan,” runs from Feb. 16 to 28 at the National Press Club. A new photography exhibit at the National Press Club captures the scenic and urban landscapes of Taiwan, which possesses both the world’s tallest building and highest mountain in East Asia. Front page: From left, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), and Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office Rep. David Tawei Lee attend a reception celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus. Photos: Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office SPONSOR THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT P.O. Box 1345 Wheaton, MD 20915-1345 Tel: 301.933.3552 • Fax: 301.949.0065 www.washdiplomat.com