Foreigners Get Up-Close Window into U.S. Election
The battle between White House contenders John McCain and Barack Obama has riveted and energized the country like no other election in recent memory, but it’s been just as fascinating to the rest of the world as well. Outsiders are also intrigued by the American voting process itself, particularly the Electoral College, which, for better or worse, has no equal anywhere else in the world.
 To that end, the Meridian International Center partnered with the State Department to bring nearly 100 up-and-coming political leaders from 76 nations around the world to the United States from Oct. 26 to Nov. 8 to observe the elections firsthand.
The I-VOTE (International Visitors Observe the Election) 2008 Initiative includes visits to one of five key battleground or swing states (Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri or Ohio) as well as meetings with a variety of political analysts, activists, academics, election officials, campaign workers and of course the voters themselves. The program wraps up Nov. 5 with a symposium at Harvard University to discuss the ramifications of the both the presidential contest and the various congressional races.
Participants, who were handpicked by U.S. ambassadors overseas, are described as “emerging leaders,” mostly between the ages of 30 and 50, involved in promoting democracy in their respective nations.
One of those selected was Jefferson Carlos de Castro Ferreira Jr., vice secretary of state for Mato Grosso, the third largest state in Brazil, who spoke to the Diplomatic Pouch about his impressions so far.
Calling the Meridian-State initiative “marvelous,” de Castro said that the key element of the program has been “to explain to a foreigner how the system of the United States really works on the voting part … because when you say elections in our country, we think vote by vote.”
But here what counts is the Electoral College, an indirect system whereby a certain number of “electors” in each state cast their vote for the president — in theory following the popular vote for that state — instead of simply tallying up the total number of individual votes. It’s a unique facet of U.S. politics that strikes many outside observers as odd.
Most people overlooked the quirky system — which dates back to 1787 — until the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, in which Al Gore garnered the most popular votes, but George W. Bush won because he received more electoral votes.
Although de Castro opposed the notion of the Electoral College initially, he said this recent trip has made him see the value of the state-based system because it boosts the representation of states with relatively small populations that might otherwise be discounted by campaigning politicians.
“Besides being extremely different from our system, I think it’s the best choice for the United States … because if you go vote by vote, you’d definitely forget the states which don’t have a high population rate,” he said. “This is democracy — you’re ensuring that people who doesn’t have the majority … get the opportunity to give their opinions.”
Likewise, de Castro praised the “high professional level of logistics — how well organized everybody is,” citing the important role that technology plays in campaigning, especially fundraising, from slick candidate Web sites to constant e-mail and blackberry updates.
But on the flip side, he wondered why the United States, a high-tech powerhouse, hasn’t completely switched over to electronic voting machines as opposed to still manually counting punch-card ballots — a major difference with Brazil.
De Castro pointed out that in his country, elections typically start at 7 a.m. on Sundays, finish around 5 p.m., and by 7 p.m., “almost all the entire states know who are the new governor, the new mayor and also who is the new president.”
De Castro describes himself as a sort of government-appointed ambassador of Mato Grosso, which, with a population of less than 3 million spread out over an area nearly the size of Peru, boasts a scenic landscape that includes many fertile pastures. In fact, it’s set to produce 60 percent of Brazil’s entire agricultural output by 2015, according to de Castro. But it also shares a large border with Bolivia, and drug trafficking is an ongoing issue.
So Mato Grosso has ramped up its coordination with U.S. law enforcement and justice officials to combat narco-trafficking. Compounding the problem though, de Castro noted, was the recent expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg by Bolivian President Evo Morales (see October 2008 issue of The Washington Diplomat) and the subsequent decrease in U.S. interdiction of coca cultivation. “We’re going to be feeling the side effects of … Chavez’s influence through Evo Morales,” de Castro said.
It’s one reason why de Castro has been cooperating closely with the U.S. Embassy and Ambassador Clifford Sobel over the past year — which in turn led to his participation in I-VOTE.
De Castro said he was grateful to have been chosen for the program and given the opportunity to witness this “historic election” between an African American who was underdog just a few months, let alone a year ago, and a widely respected war hero — “those are the best representatives right now of the most powerful nation in the entire world,” he said.
It was this intense interest in the McCain-Obama match-up that spurred the State Department to expand its foreign election observer program, explained Ambassador Stuart Holliday, president of the Meridian International Center.
“The U.S. embassies around the world have good relationships with the political leaders in those countries, and they found that there was so much interest in this election this year that we received feedback, and the State Department did as well, that it would be useful to do something a little bit more comprehensive and more robust,” said Holliday, who joined the Meridian Center in 2006.
So the Meridian won a State competition to create a compelling, novel program for the I-VOTE fellows, a diverse group that includes several members of Parliament from Jordan and Poland, for instance, a former vice president of Paraguay, several Iraqi activists and other emerging political figures.
Holliday said he hopes these future leaders learn that the U.S. democratic process works effectively, especially after criticism of the Electoral College trumping the popular vote back in 2000. “I think number one [it’s important] for them to see there’s a transparent, open and constructive process going on, and second, because the United States elections are so globally significant, that they feel they can have a window, and in fact be present at some of the key battleground states and see it firsthand.”
He added that “obviously building relationships with these political leaders is important from a U.S. foreign policy standpoint, but also, some of them have very interesting perspectives from their own countries.”
And although the U.S. Electoral College isn’t a concept that can be applied to these countries — nor are most foreigners convinced of its effectiveness — Holliday said the discussions have at least presented them with a more technical understanding of the system.
Holliday, who has participated in some of the I-VOTE events this week, said one of the most surprising aspects of the race that observers have noticed is how much the economy — as opposed to Iraq — has been driving the election, a factor that seems to working in Obama’s favor.
Many of the participants have also been surprised by the relatively low voter turnout in the United States when compared to other developed democracies. “How can people with such a gift of freedom have 50 percent or under turnaround in terms of registered voters,” Holliday asked, although he added that this highly charged election promises to be different, “and I think that’s going to have a good effect on how people see America’s own commitment to our process.”
The Meridian president also hopes the election observers walk away with the view that the United States, albeit imperfect, is a constant work in progress. “The best thing about the United States is its capacity to self-correct and improve itself and address concerns that have been raised in the past and try to fix those things for the future,” he said, noting that despite the increase in democracies around the world since the Cold War, “the United States still is a wonderful example of a system which produces the best candidates and has a certain energy to it.”
In addition to the I-VOTE program, the Meridian is hosting 44 women political leaders from the Middle East and North Africa as part of the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) for a separate election exchange program that runs from Oct. 13 to Nov. 7.
 The women — who met with President Bush recently — represent Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and they are all involved in upcoming elections in their home countries.
The Meridian has also sponsored talks for diplomats with top figures in both Republican and Democratic parties to keep them abreast of political developments in the United States — something the center will continue with an Election Day breakfast for the diplomatic corps along with future events to discuss the foreign policy of the new president, whomever it might be.
“We’re very excited about the elections,” Holliday concluded. “We’re also interested in making sure that the diplomatic community has a window into this process and a window into the first 100 days.”
Top photo: Participants in the I-VOTE (International Visitors Observe the Election) 2008 Initiative — a joint program between the State Department and Meridian International Center — who came to visit the United States from all over the world to observe the elections next week are fêted at a pre-election reception at the Meridian Center. Among the emerging young leaders in I-VOTE are (pictured front page from left) Malai Hassan Bin Malai Haji Othman, a senior official with the National Development Party in Brunei, and Nassar Al-Qaisi, a member of the Jordanian Parliament, who joined President of the Meridian International Center Stuart Holliday for the reception at the Meridian Center.
Photos: Meridian International Center
Bottom photo: President George W. Bush meets with participants of the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) on Oct. 23 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The participants include approximately 50 women political leaders from the Middle East and North Africa who part of an election exchange program with the State Department, the Meridian International Center and American University’s Center for Democracy and Election Management — one of several initiatives to introduce foreigners to the U.S. election process.
Photo: White House photo by Eric Draper
Taipei’s Changing of the Guard
Taiwan’s annual National Day reception in Washington was a crowded affair as in past years, but this year there was a decidedly different political overtone amid the pride and celebrations.
 That’s because there’s been a changing of the guard for the island government, which earlier this year inaugurated Ma Ying-jeou as its new president, as well as at the D.C.-based Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), where Jason Yuan took over from Joseph Wu as head of Taiwan’s de facto embassy this past summer.
Ma’s election back home signaled an important shift in Taiwan’s approach to mainlaind China, with the former Taipei mayor advocating closer ties with Beijing as opposed to his pro-independence predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, whose administration has been plagued by money-laundering and corruption charges.
In fact, Ma’s recent address for the 97th National Day celebration calling for peace with China stood in stark contrast to Chen’s large-scale military parade last year, a demonstration of might that riled Beijing, which still considers the island of 23 million a breakaway province.
This year on the other hand, Ma vowed a policy of reconciliation between the historic archrivals, who split in 1949 when Mao Zedong’s Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island across the Taiwan Straits.
“We have pushed forward with direct cross-strait charter flights, visits by tour groups from mainland China … and encouragement of Taiwan’s businesspeople overseas to list their companies on Taiwan’s stock markets,” Ma said. “The aim of these initiatives is to create a more open, stable environment for cross-strait interaction.”
The president added that his administration would tackle the current global financial crisis “by initiating large-scale infrastructure projects and revamping our industries to buttress our national strength and reinvent our economy” — which last year stood at $383 billion.
Back in Washington, TECRO’s new representative echoed the upbeat outlook for the future at the annual National Day fête at the Grand Hyatt hotel on Oct. 8. Making his diplomatic debut, Jason Yuan joined some 2,000 guests along with a potpourri of U.S. government representatives that support the island, including U.S. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).
Also called the “Double Ten Day,” the anniversary marks the start of the Wuchang Uprising on Oct. 10, 1911, which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC), otherwise known as Taiwan.
This year’s National Day reception also toasted the White House’s announcement to sell a $6.5 billion arms deal to Taiwan that includes 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles. China promptly condemned the proposal, saying it threatens to damage years of military trust between Washington and Beijing.
Ma has said that a robust military is in Taiwan’s interests, and he is pursuing the arms package — which both U.S. presidential candidates support. Nevertheless, the generally pacifist president says he is confident there will not be any war with China in the next four years and that maintaining the status quo will keep the island safe from a Chinese invasion.
“We have replaced the previous confrontational foreign policy style with a diplomacy of the possible,” Ma said. “Our efforts to alleviate cross-strait confrontation, create a new dynamic for peace, and enhance stability in East Asia have won the international community’s affirmation.”
To that end, Ma’s administration is considering its first-ever military contacts with the People's Liberation Army of mainland China, although nothing has been finalized yet, and next week Taiwan is preparing to welcome the most senior Chinese envoy to ever visit the island.
Not everyone is thrilled with Ma’s overtures to Beijing, however, and his increasingly unpopular administration has been criticized not just for its cross-strait rapprochement but also for its handling of the slumping economy.
To that end, on Sat. Oct. 25, nearly 1 million Taiwanese took to the streets of downtown Taipei to protest what they called Ma’s failure to stand up to China in the wake of the melamine food contamination scare. The protest was organized by the opposition, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which is planning more protests over the coming weeks.
From left, Dr. Richard Bush, Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) and Mrs. Jason Yuan, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association Chairman Allan Lui cut the cake at Taiwan’s National Day reception held at the Grand Hyatt Washington.
Front page: Jason Yuan, the new head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), left, received a City Council Resolution from D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray to congratulate Taiwan on its 97th National Day.
Photos: Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office
Korea’s Hanok: Houses with Seoul
Special to the Diplomatic Pouch contributed by Larry Luxner
James R. Lilley remembers the momentous occasion like it was yesterday. Kim Dae-jung, a former dissident who had been exiled to the United States for his opposition to South Korea’s military regime, returned to his homeland in 1984 and was promptly put under house arrest.
 “When democracy came to Korea in the summer of 1987, they released him,” recalled Lilley, an 80-year-old retired diplomat who was U.S. ambassador in Seoul from 1986 to 1989. “We had invited Kim to come to our July 4th celebration. He walked up the long stairs very slowly to where we were, and we greeted him. A lot of my Korean friends from the military and government were present, and there was no visible sign of tension. It was one of Kim’s first public appearances after being released, and we were very glad to be part of it.”
Lilley later became U.S. ambassador to China, and Kim went on to become president of Korea — and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. And the ambassador’s residence where the two men met, known as Habib House, still stands as a shining example of Korea’s highly prized hanok architecture tradition.
On Oct. 23, Lilley and 200 other guests attended the gala opening of “Stepping into Hanok for the New Millennium” — the first overseas exhibition of hanok architecture co-sponsored by the National Trust of Korea and the Korean Embassy in Washington. The exhibit has already visited Los Angeles and New York, and will remain at the embassy’s KORUS House along Massachusetts Avenue until Nov. 4.
 The term hanok refers to a building that features traditional Korean wood-frame construction. Depending on the social status of the owners, these houses were made with tiled, thatched or wooden roofs. They also have spacious courtyards and stone foundations, and are built by skilled craftsmen using refined techniques.
According to the exhibit’s sponsors, the 14 hanok houses depicted in this traveling show “affirm that traditional structures can survive in a dynamic modern city while maintaining its classic dignity and integrity.… Like flowers in a desolate concrete jungle, they are beacons of light guiding our city and our citizens into the future of quality residential housing.”
Yi Song-mi is professor of art history at the Academy of Korean Studies and curator of the exhibit. She told the Diplomatic Pouch that Seoul — whose 20 million inhabitants make it the world’s second-largest metropolis — boasts at least 10,000 hanok houses that were built continuously from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) to the present.
But in recent years as the city grew, hanok houses were largely forgotten and left to languish. “In modern Korea, people live mostly in Western-style apartment houses. They’re like matchboxes and very indistinct,” Yi explained. However, a resurgence of interest in the hanok style has led to efforts to preserve these unique dwellings.
“In olden days, these houses did not have indoor plumbing or centralized heating,” she continued. “Many of them were demolished to make way for new apartment buildings. Then the city government decided it was about time that we preserve these houses.”
Yi said the municipality offered tax breaks to residents who kept and renovated hanok houses, as well as additional incentives if they opened their house to tourists.
“Some of them have been renovated into dentists’ offices, restaurants or fashionable shops,” she explained. “In some areas, these places are now tourist attractions. Foreigners may own these houses, but Koreans are also very much interested in them.”
The oldest house in the current hanok exhibit is the Yun Posun Residence, which dates from 1870. After liberation in 1945, the house served as headquarters for the Democratic Party of Korea, and is now owned by the National Trust of Korea. Most of the other hanok dwellings in the exhibit are from the 1930s, with the newest one being the U.S. ambassador’s house, which was built in 1974.
Habib House, named after statesman Philip Habib — a former U.S. envoy to Korea — ran contrary to State Department tradition, which usually calls for U.S. ambassadors’ residences to be built in an American style.
“It took some convincing in Washington to agree to this unusual project, but Habib prevailed,” said Alexander Vershbow, who retired from the Foreign Service in September as U.S. ambassador in Korea, and who spoke at the exhibition’s opening ceremony at KORUS House.
“The new house took three years to build and Ambassador Habib never lived in it himself, but after he passed away the house was named after him as a tribute to his sensitivity to the preservation of the local culture,” said Vershbow. “Even today, more than 35 years after the roof beams went up — complete with a Buddhist monk’s blessing — the minute you set foot inside the door, you know that this house is the result of a marriage made in heaven,” Vershbow added. “It feels both Korean and American.”
Professor Yi said the point of the exhibit is to educate people about these historic houses and, ultimately, to encourage more Koreans to live in them, despite the high cost of restoring and maintaining these treasures.
“Depending on the area and the condition, these houses are by square footage much more expensive than modern apartment buildings,” Yi told Pouch. Asked if she herself lived in a hanok, Yi smiled. “I wish I did,” she said with a sigh.
‘Champlain’s Dream’ on Display at Canadian Embassy
The hanok house exhibition at the Korean Embassy is just one of a handful of cultural showcases this fall at area embassies. The Swedes are presenting a two month-long series of exhibitions, seminars and other workshops on the theme of “Voices in a Changing World” (see article in Lifestyle column), but there are plenty more arts offerings on tap.
 The Canadian Embassy, for instance, looks back at one voice from the past that truly changed our world as we know it. “Champlain’s Dream” is a collection of priceless notebooks, maps and documents personally drawn by Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec City and one of the first cartographers of North America.
“This collection provides a window on Champlain’s explorations and the critical role he played in the development of both our countries by mapping the Northeast,” said Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson, who noted that the exhibit coincides with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City, “the cradle of French language and culture in North America.”
Champlain was integral in opening up that world of French culture and commerce — especially the fur trade — to North America, where his travels took him along the Saint Lawrence River and as far south as New York State and Vermont, in the process mapping what is now known as Lake Champlain.
The Canadian Embassy is also partnering with the National Archives on a related exhibit titled “1783: Subject or Citizen?” that commemorates the 225th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the American Revolution and reshaped the boundaries of modern North America.
The exhibit brings together 60 treasures from the vaults of both the U.S. National Archives and Archives Canada — including 18th-century maps, books, paintings and the rarely displayed 1783 treaty — in the first collaboration between the two institutions.
“1783: Subject or Citizen” runs through Jan. 25 at the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building on Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, NW, and “Champlain’s Dream” runs through Jan. 2 at the Embassy of Canada Art Gallery, 501 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
Embassy Participation in First-Ever FotoWeek DC
Photography takes center stage for the city’s first-ever FotoWeek DC, an eclectic weeklong extravaganza from Nov. 15 to 22 that spans various city venues, including several embassies.
Two separate exhibitions offer a vastly different, though equally captivating portrait of the Czech Republic, both past and present. On display through mid-December at the Czech Embassy, “Wide Asleep by Michael Borek” features work by the Czech-American photographer that ranges from the playful — a fairytale-like balloon sailing over Prague — to the ominous — a scene from a Santa Fe railway depot evocative of a David Lynch movie.
 The thread that connects these disparate images is the affinity they share for the surrealist artists who have inspired Borek. Currently a D.C. area resident, Borek spent a number of years surrounded by the lifeless architecture of the communist era, intrigued by the aged architectural structures of the 1920s and 1930s that parallel some crumbling facades here in the U.S.
A fuller, more dramatic view of communist-era Czech life can be seen in a complementary exhibit at the American University’s Katzen Arts Center titled “Invasion 68 Prague,” based on smuggled images documenting the Soviet repression during the 1968 Prague Spring.
The man behind those images was Josef Koudelka, who recorded the military invasion with powerful black-and-white pictures that eventually made their way to Magnum photography agency and were published anonymously in the Sunday Times Magazine under the initials P.P. (Prague Photographer) for fear of reprisal against Koudelka and his family.
The prints — 74 of which are on display through Dec. 28 — went onto international acclaim as a visual testament of the Czech rebellion that tried to break free of Soviet domination.
Koudelka’s work has helped to keep the memory of that rebellion alive for future generations. Likewise, photographer Chrystie Sherman is trying to document a disappearing community trying to survive in the face of emigration, oppression and poverty.
During the past six years, she has been recording vanishing Jewish communities that have their roots in ancient Babylonian, Persian, Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritages, migrating to such diverse areas as India, Ukraine, Cuba and North Africa. The result, “Lost Futures: Journeys into the Jewish Diaspora,” is now on display at the Austrian Embassy until Jan. 9.
Meanwhile, at the Australian Embassy, a very different visual journey takes place with “Sublime Symmetries,” in which photographer David Stephenson uses long exposures to register intricate geometric patterns normally hidden from the naked eye. These include detailed cupolas in soaring European cathedrals, chapels and palaces normally blanketed by a deep shadow. A D.C. native, Stephenson migrated to Australia in 1982 and is currently based in Tasmania.
Other embassy FotoWeek displays include “Ancient Greek Treasures from the Walters Art Museum” at the Greek Embassy, “A Disenchanted Playroom” at the Goethe-Institut co-hosted by the German Embassy, and the “Serenissima: Venice in Winter” evening exhibit, lecture and book signing at the Italian Embassy on Nov. 19.
For the complete schedule, visit www.fotoweekdc.org.
Whales, Western Ireland and More…
 Through Jan. 18, the National Geographic Museum explores the dramatic undersea world of whales with an interactive exhibit titled “Whales / Tohora” that includes personal narratives and artifacts on the cultural significance of whales told from the perspective of the Maori peoples of the South Pacific. On hand for the opening was New Zealand Ambassador Roy Ferguson, who joined in a jolting sunrise performance of Mäori warriors who participated in a traditional dawn ceremony to bless the exhibition.
A definite eye-opener, the lively 6 a.m. ceremony included Kuia (female elders) performing karanga (calls of welcome) along with Kaumatua (male elders) and the tribe’s Tohunga (spiritual leaders) chanting ancient prayers and welcoming the diplomatic delegation. (If you couldn’t make it for the 6 a.m. ceremony, see the photos at right.)
 Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, meanwhile, will showcase his native culture at a discussion at his residence on Nov. 12 highlighting the rich heritage of Western Ireland. Over the years, that heritage has been expressed in part through its distinctive food and lively music — both of which will be on full display at this evening event sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates.
Another upcoming embassy-affiliated discussion sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates is “Berlin: Two Centuries of Change” at the German Embassy on Nov. 13. Scholar Marion Deshmukh describes the often startling transformations that changed Berlin from a relatively insignificant Prussian barracks capital in the 18th century to one of the world’s most important cultural centers and crossroads of East and West today. (Tickets are $50 for each; for information visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.)
For a much younger audience, the first-ever Kids Euro Festival 2008 wraps up Nov. 9 with its cornucopia of free children’s events spread out at the 27 member embassies of the European Union and other area venues (www.kidseurofestival.org).
And on the musical front, the Mexican Embassy is co-hosting the Post-Classical Ensemble’s “Mexican Odyssey” on Nov. 6 at the Harman Center for the Arts. The performance actually blends music with history and visual art to illustrate Mexico’s explosive cultural saga — from the Aztec intensities captured by Carlos Chavez, to the florid reverence of Mexican Baroque, to the shrill trumpets and booming tubas of Silvestre Revueltas (www.HarmanCenter.org).
The French Embassy, or La Maison Française, is also the site of several concerts next month, including the baroque ensemble Les Paladins on Nov. 12 (www.la-maison-francaise.org). The past also plays out at the Polish Embassy on Nov. 22 with “Remembrances of a Warszawa Salon,” presented by the Opera Camerata of Washington and featuring classical Polish masterpieces as well as pieces from French and Italian opera under the direction of Robert Scott Beard and tenor Rafal Bartminski (www.operacamerata.org).
Bartminski returns to the Polish Embassy Nov. 25 for an evening of song and opera under the Embassy Series concert program. Other Embassy Series offerings in November are violinist Evalon Ingolf playing at the Icelandic Residence on Nov. 7 and the colorfully named ensemble Harmonious Blacksmith at the Ukrainian Embassy on Nov. 17 (www.embassyseries.org).
For a complete listing of international events around Washington, visit our Events Calendar at www.washdiplomat.com.
(from top photo to bottom)
Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow and his wife Lisa along with curator Yi Song-mi, a professor of art history at the Academy of Korean Studies, stand by the images depicting traditional Korean hanok houses as part of the exhibition “Stepping into Hanok for the New Millennium” at the embassy's KORUS House.
Photos: Larry Luxner
“Champlain’s Dream” is a collection of priceless notebooks, maps and documents personally drawn by Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec City and one of the first cartographers of North America, now on display at the Canadian Embassy Art Gallery
Photo: Embassy of Canada
On Nov. 19, the Italian Cultural Institute hosts an exhibit, lecture and book signing for Serenissima: Venice in Winter” by Frank Van Riper (whose photo “Traghetto di Notte” is above) and Judith Goodman at the Italian Embassy as part of the first FotoWeek DC citywide photography showcase.
Photo: © Frank Van Riper / FotoWeek DC
Ambassador of New Zealand Roy Ferguson and his wife Dawn, left, listen as National Geographic President and CEO John Fahey introduces the “Whales/Tohora” exhibit at the National Geographic Museum. The opening featured Mäori warriors performing a traditional dawn ceremony to bless the exhibition.
Photos: Rebecca Hale ©2008 National Geographic
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT
P.O. Box 1345 Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345
Tel: 301.933.3552 Fax: 301.949.0065
www.washdiplomat.com
|
