What Undiplomatic People Do: Take Communion

I’m sure I was not the only person who saw a priest actually hand Rudy Giuliani the Eucharist on Saturday at the Pope’s mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Not only has Mr. Giuliani been married thrice, he’s also pro-choice, something the Catholic Church does not at all commune with. It’s very typical of would be politicians who are known for being artless, rude, tactless, (Ann Coulterish), to ignore ancient doctrine out of sheer selfishness. After all, it’s the move to make if your an Undiplomat – alienate a faithful following by claiming that their rules don’t apply to you.

This episode reminded me of a line from an excellent memoir by an incredible author I read last summer, The Year of Magical Thinking. In it, Joan Didion says that her husband was always fond of saying that Episcopals (Ms. Didion) “take communion” whilst Catholics (her husband John) “receive communion”. Unfortunately, I think Mr. Giuliani’s shenanigans on Saturday beg to differ.

Truly undignified, Rudy, truly undignified.

Diplomatic: Jimmy Carter to Meet with Hamas

Hamas was created in 1987 at the beginning of the First Intifada and calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. It’s composed of Palestinian Sunni Muslims and as of 2006 holds a majority of seats in the legislative council of the Palestinian Authority. Known as a militant movement, headed by the exiled Khaled Meshaal, Hamas is primarily a nationalistic movement fueled by Islamic fundamentalism. Officially, Hamas is not a terrorist group even though Canada, Israel, Japan, and the United States list it as one. According to Israeli scholar Reuven Paz, “approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities”. Apparently, Hamas does much more for the Palestinian people than the Palestinian Authority ever did, by devoting much of its estimated $70-million annual budget to an extensive social services network. It funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. However, as an organization it’s also responsible for 350 terrorist attacks since 1993 and the official denial of the Jewish Holocaust on its website in 2000.

Considering Hamas’ duplicity, its amensia of its seemingly opposing parts, one has to wonder which Hamas Jimmy Carter is meeting with. But knowing former US President Carter, we can rest assured it is the non-terrorist part he will appeal to. Therefore, The Diplomat applauds Jimmy Carter for his diplomacy and sheer guts to speak with Meshaal, despite the horrible press his efforts are garnering him, about the on-going Middle East peace process. Incidentally, Meshaal has expressed his own desire to have talks on the process, which is also groundbreaking. Thankfully, a real diplomat stepped up and seized the opportunity to bring a Palestinian voice into the peace dialogue since any solution to such a massive dispute will no doubt have to come from all involved parties.

After all, it’s Diplomacy 101: true conflict resolution always involves perpetrators and victims. (They’re often indistinguishable).

Diplomat by Nature: Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope has landed in the United States. His first stop will be the White House where he will be meeting with the President and First Lady in what is only the second time in history a pontiff has visited the site. He will then hit the district in the popemobile on a parade route open to the public. On Friday, the Pope will arrive in New York City where he’s scheduled to address the United Nations at the UN Headquarters. He will also be visiting Ground Zero on Sunday to offer a blessing to those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The pomp and circumstance of his travel logistics, although minor, remains one of the more puzzling things to me about the Catholic Church (he’s allegedly scheduled to arrive at Ground Zero in a limousine with Cardinal Egan). Wouldn’t a yellow cab with a donated fare be more diplomatic?

Regardless, Pope Benedict XVI has humble roots and is remembered as claiming his desire to be a Cardinal at the age of 5. As a product of wartime Germany who turns 81 today, (happy birthday, Joseph Ratzinger), one wonders how many more Pope’s there will be who grew up in such tumultuous times. It’s no question that Nazi Germany directly informed and continues to inform his spirituality. After all, he’s known for his view of the church not being something that exists so that it can be incorporated into the world, but so as to offer a way to live in it; that it’s not a human edifice but a divinely created one; and that theology is not a dry academic exercise to depart from but something theologians should support to serve the faithful. Very – ecclesiastical totalitarianism.

So I’m curious as to how his successors, ones who grew up in more peaceful times, will change the Catholic Church in the years to come. How will their times, their childhoods in their various countries inform the Church in the world?

Most Undiplomatic Person of the Moment (#2): Silvio Berlusconi

Si puo fare … again.

Yes, it’s true, Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s Prime Minister once again. This will be the third time that Berlusconi has governed his country. And you know what they say about the third time – time for another face lift!

Not only has Silvio been tight with George W. Bush and the United States’ foreign policy regarding the invasion of Iraq, he’s also managed to dodge financial corruption charges for years on his way to becoming a self-made billionaire by basically just changing the statute of limitations to his favor. However, what’s most disturbing about Italy’s right turn is that Berlusconi effectively controls 90% of all national television broadcasting, which without a doubt should disqualify him from office due to conflict of interests. And if there’s one thing The Diplomat is certain of, a country without a free press is a country without democracy.

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) conducts an annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index and ranked Italy 39th in press freedom, falling from a free press country to now only a partially-free press country. Let’s hope Berlusconi stops the tomfoolery and instead focuses on bringing freedom and economic stability back to the people.

Viva Italia!

Diplomats Love (#3): Coffee

Let’s face it, nothing says international peace and conflict resolution like a cup of coffee. As a vital social lubricant the world over, it’s played a crucial role in the signing of many a peace treaties. God bless Ethiopia, even if they should perhaps drink a bit more jo themselves and solve that ongoing border dispute with Eritrea.

Coffee was originally used for spiritual reasons. After landing across the Red Sea in what is now modern day Yemen, Muslim monks cultivated the fermented coffee berries to make wine, another one of The Diplomat’s sincere loves. Others have Asian palm civets eat the beans, digest them, and pass them along to you for roughly $100 a cup. (That’s even more expensive than a soccer mom’s triple-tall-decaf-white-chocolate-mocha from Starbucks, a truly undiplomatic drink mind you. Incidentally, for a true, pure cup of local coffee, the best I’ve found in my current post (Brooklyn) is Gorilla Coffee).

I’m not saying coffee solves the world’s problems, I’m just saying it’s fun drinking a beverage that Mitt Romney can’t.

Word of the Day: Flapdoodle

Flapdoodle – foolish talk; nonsense

Flapdoodle in a sentence:

That’s right John, stop the flapdoodle.

The Opposite of Diplomatic: Artless, Rude, Tactless, Ann Coulter …

In all honesty, it pains me, seriously pains me to even mention Ms. Coulter here, but she is someone who typifies what The Diplomat isn’t. And we all know how useful, instructive, and didactic it is in defining something by saying what it is not (see, Jean Paul Sartre’s ‘L’Être et le néant : Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique‘). To be plain, in one’s journey from controversial for controversy’s sake to an utterly shameful disintegrating concept of a human, Ann Coulter breaks the Diplometer’s scale by coming in below zero.

If she were someone of value who actually valued herself and her possible role in the world, she’d have taken a serious lesson from an individual who not only redefined cultural diplomacy but someone who also made ultra-modern, never before seen strides in Transitional Justice: Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Abrazos, Sergio. Descanse en paz.

Democratic Party: In Need of a Deus Ex Machina?

The New York Times today is reporting “turmoil in the Democratic presidential race” even claiming that some are calling for the Democratic National Committee leader, Howard Dean, to be more aggressive in his leadership. More aggressive? Really? It seems the more pertinent question here is, do we really think the Democratic party will implode because two contenders, two historically unprecedented contenders, are currently vying for the Office of the President of the United States? I’m going to agree with Maureen Dowd here and say that keeping them both in competition with one another will only strengthen the eventual winner.

The tenacity of Hillary Clinton has been well documented. For whatever reason, her determination and sheer fortitude to march on amidst the statistics and media onslaught has made her appear less favorable, instead of a more desirable leader.

Conversely, Barack Obama has had to weather a considerably less amount of public odium and controversy, largely due to the excellent manner in which his political campaign has been managed and run, but also in part due to a usual relentlessly vicious media taking a hiatus from contempt and criticism to see what the guy actually has to say.

However, as was mentioned earlier, the democratic race has essentially turned into what all competitions become: a personality contest.

The diplomatic thing for the Democratic party to do is to allow both candidates to continue their campaign, debating leadership while highlighting where their party and the Republican party fall on the issues facing the American people. By making the contest about who is a better leader, Hillary or Barack, and not as much about the nuances of their very similar politics, the Democratic candidates have the chance to sharpen one another (or dull one another) in preparation to serve.

Ultimately, The Diplomat calls for another debate before the Pennsylvania primaries so that less informed citizens have a better opportunity to place a more informed vote. Post April 22nd, Howard Dean can then be a more hands-on leader in order to secure a democratic President for the United States of America.

Word of the Day: Politburo

Politburo – (1925) short for Political Bureau; the principle policy-making and executive committee of a political party, originally tied to and implying the Russian Communist party (politicheskoe byuro)

Politburo in a sentence:

According to the latest election news in Zimbabwe, Mugabe may no longer be able to trust his long-running politburo.

A Truly Undiplomatic Event: 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

With the current Olympic controversy brewing amidst fighting and bloody unrest in Tibet and China’s stake in trading with Sudan’s government while a genocide rages on there (Steven Spielberg has already resigned as an artistic advisor for the 2008 Olympics because of China’s silence over Darfur), boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympics would be the most diplomatic thing for the international community to do.

Not only does China have one of the worst human rights records in the world, (it’s consistently grabbed a spot in the Top 10 Human Rights Violators for years according to watch dog groups and the Unites States government, although it’s been mysteriously removed from that list in 2008 by the US State Department), it is also quickly imploding on its own economy’s lightning fast race to the top by becoming a complete environmental disaster. (To read shocking documentation of this, see the New York Times’ “Choking on Growth” series).

History has seen a similar story with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (and in a way, the Olympics in China have the potential to turnout like the 1968 games in Mexico did). The international community was hesitant then just as it is now. Hitler audaciously and confidently flouted hosting the Olympics as if it was not at all a matter of conscience in a way that only dictators are able to get away with. And to his chagrin, the rest of the world shamefully followed his lead of enthusiasm by welcoming the Olympics to a country who’s leader would very soon reak unimagineable horror onto the entire continent culminating in World War II.

As the world again pauses, this time in its backing of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, The Diplomat is encouraging the international community to unite and employ true diplomatic discipline and courage to say no to the Communist government and leading human rights violator. Supporting such an economically lucrative event for a country that espouses violations of its citizens and the citizens of the world for entertainment purposes, is unworthy of democracy and should be boycotted.