It Should Go Without Saying ...

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a Travel Alert for Chile today. The bottom line:

The Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Chile.

Official VIP travel to Chile, however, is still on.

"Who Are You?"

I'm not a fan of all things British - not the modern things, anyway - but I do absolutely love the in-your-face rhetorical style of UK politicians. Not for them the dreary, can't-we-all-get-along, insincere collegiality usually displayed by U.S. Congressmen and Senators. If a UK political leader such as Nigel Farage has something to say to the President of the European Union, Mr. Herman van Rompuy, he will say it in a manner that would start a bar fight in certain other surroundings.

Mr. Farage begins the engagement by insulting Mr. Rompuy's appearance, then proceeds to ask a rhetorical question - who are you and who elected you? - followed by a backhanded compliment - "I sense, though, that you are competent and capable and dangerous" - before answering his own question by saying that Mr. Rompuy intends to be "the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation states." Next, Mr. Farage delivers a follow-through punch by insulting Mr. Rompuy's home country of Belgium, and finally concludes by saying on behalf of the majority of the British people "we don't know you, we don't want you, and the sooner you are put out to grass, the better."

A verbal smack-down delivered British Bulldog style. Ah, this is bracing stuff.

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Another Earthquake, Even More Massive

The dust has barely settled from Haiti's earthquake, but today an even more massive earthquake - one of 8.8 magnitude - hit Chile.

Around 9:45 this morning I heard a quick television news comment to the effect that all members of U.S. Embassy Santiago have been accounted for, but I can't find any official confirmation of that yet.

Looking around the embassy website, I see the mission has conscientiously prepared the expatriate American community for emergencies of this very type. Here's some good advice they sent out to citizens ("The Consular Section of the Embassy has developed this site to provide the American community in Chile with useful, accurate information about preparing to confront earthquakes and other disasters") and to embassy employees.

The fact that Chile has a few noticeable earthquakes every year means that people are likely to take that sort of advice seriously, and casualties are likely to be minimal. Here's hoping.

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Update at 10:45 EST:

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is tracking the wave that followed this morning earthquake, and has sent a warning message (here) to the State of Hawaii.

The wave or waves should start hitting Hawaii around 11:19 HST (4:19 PM Eastern Standard Time), and they should be viewable over Honolulu web cams.

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Update at 11:45 EST:

The U.S. Department of State has just put up a 'person finder' for victims of the earthquake.

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Update at 12:15 PM EST):

According to a Tweet from Travel.Gov "There have been no reports of American citizen fatalities or injuries in Chile."

Workplace Morale Emergency

If I heard that some employees in a U.S. government office had expressed concern "that violence in the workplace could result because of the high levels of workplace animosity and tension," I would be surprised, but not disbelieving. There are some toxic workplaces, I know. But is one of them the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs? Surely it's not that bad (?).

Here's today's WaPo story about a leaked 63-page report on morale problems (more like a morale emergency, from the sound of it) in the Bureau of Public affairs:

An internal State Department report says the agency's work in publicizing administration foreign policy and its relations with the media have been hurt by poor communication, lack of staffing and uneven leadership in the Bureau of Public Affairs.
A review by the department's inspector general found that some employees had been instructed not to return phone calls to reporters asking sensitive questions and that the environment in one office was so tense and hostile that several workers fear violence.

The report, which was completed last week, was obtained on Thursday by The Associated Press.

The 63-page document also found that the duties of some career employees in the press office had been transferred to political appointees, which contributed to low morale. The report was compiled last fall, months after Hillary Rodham Clinton took the helm at the State Department.

"It's a tough report," said P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs who runs the bureau. "What the report shows is that the bureau has many strengths, but it clearly has some organizational weaknesses that we are aggressively trying to correct."

He said corrective action had already been taken on about a third of the problems identified in the report.

The inspector general conducts periodic reviews of each department bureau. The work of the Bureau of Public Affairs is deemed critical to the administration's ability to communicate its foreign policy to the American taxpayer and foreign governments and their publics.

The review praised the skill and professionalism of the spokesmen - both career diplomats and political appointees - who brief reporters daily from the podium at the department's headquarters. It also lauded the bureau's attention to new media and its use of social networking platforms to get out the Obama administration's message.

But it said the operation needed better direction and that a senior front office position empty for more than a year should be filled immediately as its vacancy "contributes significantly to weak bureau management and low morale.
At lower levels, the report said the Office of Press Relations, which in previous administrations has been a primary channel for answering inquiries from the media, had lost much of its role because Clinton's team believed it was not effective.

"Thanks to a perfect storm of administration transition, weak leadership, miscues, misunderstanding, personality conflicts and poor communication, PRS has been marginalized," it said, referring to the press office by its acronym.

The report said the office also may have lost credibility because it had been instructed not to respond to certain questions from reporters.

"Under direction from the front office, PRS does not return some reporters' calls, for inquiries that are deemed sensitive," it said.

Crowley denied there was a policy to ignore certain reporters' phone calls but said in some cases inquiries would be passed along to the front office, adding that calls are returned.

The report's most damaging findings involve the Office of Broadcast Services, which produces and distributes audio and video content to worldwide media outlets. That office, it said, is beset by severe morale problems and hostility between employees and managers.

It said several employees expressed concern "that violence in the workplace could result because of the high levels of workplace animosity and tension." The report called for the current director of the office to be replaced.

Crowley acknowledged "a serious morale issue" in the office and said it was being addressed.

I'll have to see the report for myself before coming to any conclusions.

Inspirational Secret

The Covert Comic's Inspirational Secret of the Week:

It's better to be hated for what you are, than loved for something you are not ...... Unless you're a CIA officer working under official cover, in which case it's more or less a wash.

Oakland Bus Fight Goes Viral

If the terms "Epic Beard Man" and "Amber Lamps" mean nothing to you, then I congratulate you for having better things to do with your free time than watch YouTube videos. But, on the other hand, you're missing one of the most tragicomic things that I've seen in years. And the many interpretations, parodies, and remixes of it that pop up every day say more about inter-racial relations in contemporary America than I could absorb in a month of seminars.

Design Concept Selected for New U.S. Embassy London

The winner of the design competition for a new U.S. embassy in London was announced today:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis B. Susman, and Acting Director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Adam Namm, announced today that KieranTimberlake of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has won the design competition for the New London Embassy.

KieranTimberlake’s design met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. Their concept most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design. KieranTimberlake is an architectural firm known for its commitment to innovation and environmental responsibility.

Starting with 37 architectural submissions, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations narrowed the list to nine firms. A distinguished jury of both American and British leaders in the fields of architecture, academia and diplomacy selected four firms for the final phase of the competition.

The four firms explored the symbolism of the embassy, its presence and position in the cityscape of London. Their goal was to create a building and site complex with a timeless quality to appropriately represent the United States of America in the United Kingdom.

The four competing architectural firms, KieranTimberlake, Morphosis Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Richard Meier & Partners, worked for nearly a year and made presentations to the jury which then recommended the winning design.

As KieranTimberlake moves forward with the design of the building, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and KieranTimberlake will be actively engaged in the consultation and planning process involving the Mayor’s office, the Wandsworth Borough Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, as well as residents in the area to ensure that the new embassy provides an appropriate home for the United States of America in London.

The anticipated ground breaking on this landmark embassy will be in 2013 with a goal to complete the construction in 2017.

The WaPo has a story on the winning design concept today with quotes from architectural historian Jane Loeffler, that archenemy of Fortress Embassies:

Jane Loeffler, author of "The Architecture of Diplomacy," a history of U.S. embassy facilities, praised the selection.

"They really want to make this a positive statement and it looks like they are doing that," said Loeffler. "It is very fashion forward, but it's not just trendy; it has rationale and science behind it."

-- snip --

The winning design's emphasis on sustainability isn't just trendy architectural positioning, argues Loeffler. It is symbolically important as a diplomatic gesture. It also demonstrates how sustainability and security are interwoven in embassy architecture. A structure with its own water and energy sources isn't just kind to the environment, it's self-reliant during a crisis. Loeffler cites the example of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti -- an exemplar of the State Department's recent more fortress-like structures -- which withstood last month's devastating earthquake and has kept functioning through the aftermath.

The winning firm is tooting its horn today, and provided the public with several conceptual renderings of that symbolic-secure-sustainable design, such as the one above.

The concept looks perfectly fine to me, not that I know anything about art. I see that it provides the necessary setback distance from potential vehicle-borne explosive devices via barriers that are discretely cut into the landscaped hillside on the back of the building and by the water feature on the front (prediction: before construction is finished, DS will be blamed for requiring moats), and, according to the WaPo story, the facade of the building is designed of blast-resistant glass and polymer skin.

I'm sure this building can be made fully compliant with all the current embassy security standards, however, I expect it will be at a far greater cost than would have been the case with a more conventional concrete-and-punched-windows building. If the State Department chooses to do one artsy new embassy in London at the cost of three or four unrefined standard design embassies in other places, well, that's a management decision, and I assume the people in charge must have made that trade-off after due consideration.

I also note that this new embassy will contain just the chancery building, and none of the other stuff that has commonly been provided on new embassy complexes for the last ten or so years - no Chief of Mission Residence, Marine House, warehouse, parking lots and service bays, etc. Of course, I suppose that one advantage of building a new embassy in a nice place like London is that you don't need to provide the on-site amenities that are required in the third world, such as commissaries and recreational facilities. Because of that downsized space requirement, the London embassy can be built on a site of only five acres, versus the ten or more acres that are customarily needed to meet new embassy space requirements.


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Second thoughts:

Upon some reflection, I see that what we have here, security-wise, is a modern version of the motte-and-bailey castle, a type of fortification that was common in the UK once upon a time. Elegantly simple, and culturally sensitive to boot.

Now, just so long as the British no longer build trebuchets, the new embassy ought to be in good shape.