EMBASSY SURVEY

Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad and Panamanian envoy Romy Vasqez de Gonzales have been voted the sexiest heads of mission among the diplomatic corps in Ottawa, according to the results of Embassy's first ever Sexy and Savvy survey.

When reached for comment, Mr. Samad said he was thrilled by the results and the "flattering votes."

"This honour will surely make my heavy workload a bit lighter," he said. "Even though diplomacy requires thinking twice before saying anything, I will use a Charles Dickens quote to express my appreciation: 'Humble we are, humble we have been, humble we shall ever be.'"

In addition to being the hottest male envoy, Mr. Samad was also voted as the hardest working ambassador in the city.

His wife, Khorshied Samad, was also voted sexiest spouse of an ambassador–impressive considering it's only been a year since she had her first child. Mrs. Samad was also voted the most high-profile spouse of an ambassador and came in second as the best-dressed spouse of an ambassador.

"I don't think there are any secrets associated with being nominated or
winning, but I do believe in living one's life with passion, enthusiasm and
a sense of humour," she said in response to her nominations.

Those who are familiar with Panamanian Ambassador Romy Vasquez de Gonzales on the diplomatic party circuit know the stunning, dark-haired diplomat deserves the accolade of sexiest female envoy. But beauty is not the only
hing voters found appealing in the Panamanian ambassador. Those polled also thought she was one of the foreign diplomats most in the know of political gossip, an honour she tied for in first place with British High Commissioner Anthony Cary, which itself is remarkable because the Brit has only been in town for four months. Ms. Vaquez was also runner up for the coveted title of
female ambassador with the best hair, in addition to tying in third place for the best-dressed female envoy.

Still in the sexy category, this time for male heads of mission, Austrian
Ambassador Otto Ditz and

Czech Ambassador Pavel Vosalik tied for second
place.

For females, Ambassador Beatriz Valle of Honduras, a stunning single mother who loves to sing, took second place. Croatian Ambassador Vasela Mrden Korac took third place.
Vasela Mrden Korac of Croatia may be the tallest female envoy in town, at least an inch or two above everybody, but she beat everyone hands down in
the category of best-dressed female envoy; garnering 30 per cent of the vote.

British High Commissioner Anthony Cary snagged first place in the best-dressed male ambassador category. "I am very flattered as my family is incredulous that I should be considered well dressed," he said. "My success in this category can only be attributed to my high commission's savvy in manipulating the poll."

Following behind Mr. Cary's coattails were Italian Ambassador Gabriele Sardo,

Bahamian High Commissioner Philip Smith, and French Ambassador Daniel
Jouanneau.

Siguté Jakstonyté of Lithuania; Elena Stefoi of Romania; Slobodanka Kojadinovic, the Serbian chargé d'affaires; and Ingrid Iremark of Sweden tied for second place, each with 8.3 per cent of the vote.

With Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent open criticism of America's foreign policy, it ould be correct to say there's a little chill in relations between both countries. But in Ottawa, there is a warmth between the former Cold War enemies generated by their envoys' shared sense of
humour. Ambassadors Georgiy Mamedov of Russia and David Wilkins of the United States both tied for first place as ambassadors with the best sense of humour. The aforementioned Mr. Smith of the Bahamas and Stanislav Opiela of Slovakia followed the pair closely.

Interestingly, Messrs Mamedov and Wilkins also share the dubious title of ambassador with the corniest jokes, garnering a larger percentage of votes in this category than the Best Sense of Humour one.

The American ambassador scored well in a number of other categories, including most discreet ambassador, envoy with the most influence–won by a whopping 75.5 per cent– and runner up for hardest working ambassador. He also got high marks for best hair, sexiest male ambassador and knowing the best political gossip. His wife, Susan Wilkins, was voted ambassador's spouse with the most influence, and came behind Mrs. Samad as most high profile spouse of an ambassador.

Men tend not to fuss about their hair as much as women do, unless of course their hairlines are receding. But if the votes are anything to go by, one might assume that Norwegian ambassador Tor Berntin Naess spends a fair amount of time at the hairdresser. Regardless, survey respondents thought
the Nordic gentleman has a pretty impressive set of locks, and crowned him s the male ambassador with the best hair in town.

For Caucasians, women with blonde hair have always had a special allure, so it was no surprise that in the female with best hair category, Mrs. Korac of Croatia, was voted in first place. But brunettes have lots of fun, too, as Mrs. Vasquez of Panama proved, clinching second place, while Slobodanka Kojadinovic, chargé d'affaires of Serbia–another blonde from Eastern Europe–won third place.

If there is anything that defines diplomats, it's their knack for throwing parties and lunches, where a suit and tie is the formal dress code. So what is a diplomat without the cocktail parties and the lunches? In that regard, Embassy thought it would be wise to include a category called ambassador with the best business lunches.

Not withstanding the fact that Taiwan is a tiny island, whose office in Ottawa isn't in fact an embassy proper, its representative, David Lee, was voted as the ambassador who throws some of the best business lunches, according to those polled in the survey.

"I have been in the [diplomatic] business for over a quarter of a century. For me, I always do my homework," he said when told he's the best in hosting business lunches. However, the soft-spoken and modest diplomat said he's flattered as well as surprised at the honour because he's just been in Ottawa for less than four months.

Embassy intern Paul Ovens conducted the first annual survey by phone, fax and email from July 4-27. After contacting all 125 foreign missions in Ottawa, as well as dozens of members of Parliament, senators, academics, journalists, think-tanks and others familiar with the diplomatic community, he received more than 54 responses.

"Many respondents laughed out loud at the first questions [who is the sexiest male and female ambassador?]," said Mr. Ovens.

Mr. Ovens said some respondents preferred answering questions on the opposite spectrum to what he asked.

From embassy magazine, canada

afghan biz women

Several female business owners from Afghanistan will arrive in Oklahoma City next month as part of a program intended to teach 13 women about entrepreneurship.

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation, a charitable agency formed last year by Oklahoma oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, donated $50,000 (U.S.) to the Women Impacting Public Policy Institute to help fund the program.

Beginning this month, 13 Afghan participants will go to Midland, Mich., for five weeks and then to Washington in September for an institute conference. Four of the women will travel to klahoma City in September to shadow female business owners.

"It was incredible to see the work that these 13 women have accomplished in their country," said institute president Terry Neese. "Some of them have faced tremendous obstacles to operate their businesses."

peace jirga

The peace jirga is a great occasion to recite a couple of quotes from Malalai Joya.

Respected friends, over five years passed since the US-led attack on Afghanistan. Probably many of you are not well aware of the current conditions of my country and expect me to list the positive outcomes of the past years since the US invasion. But I am sorry to tell you that Afghanistan is still chained in the fetters of the fundamentalist warlords and is like an unconscious body taking its last breath.

The US government removed the ultra-reactionary and brutal regime of Taliban, but instead of relying on Afghan people, pushed us from the frying pan into the fire and selected its friends from among the most dirty and infamous criminals of the “Northern Alliance”, which is made up of the sworn enemies of democracy and human rights, and are as dark-minded, evil, and cruel as the Taliban.

The Western media talks about democracy and the liberation of Afghanistan, but the US and its allies are engaged in the warlordization, criminalization and drug-lordization of our wounded land.

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The gang-rape of young girls and women by warlords belonging to the “Northern Alliance” still continues especially in the northern provinces of Afghanistan. People have staged mass protests a number of times but no one cares about their sorrow and tears. Only a few of the rape cases find their way into the media. One shocking case was that of 11 year old Sanobar, the only daughter of an unfortunate widow who was abducted, raped and then exchanged for a dog by a warlord. In a land where human dignity has no price, the vicious rapist of a poor girl still acts as district chief.

The only protests in Afghanistan the mainstream media reports on are the ones involving the abuse of the Quran or those Muhammed cartoons. Much of the mainstream media does not care to portray Muslims as human beings, who have the same concerns as everyone else. How much attention has Malalai Joya gotten in the mainstream media or from Western feminists? It is because she criticizes both U.S. military actions and the Taliban that she is not well known.

free expression, kamran was released

Kamran was released last night at 07:00. he was handcuffed and foot chained. He was told that NDS is there to ensure his security but they feel sorry for the journalists that they don’t realize it. He was told that he spoke of psychological torture and compared the place with guantanamo, after his first release, while he was well treated the first time, they wanted to show him what guantanamo could be like. One of NDS deputies spoke to him for several hours, using a combination of threat and suggestions. He was told only to write in favor of the government.

Just before Kamran was kidnapped we received a letter from the media complaints commission sent to attorney general and journalist union too. The letter was signed by the minister of information and culture, Khoram.

The commission resolution had more of a consulting tone, and do not outline any violation of the law and requires no apology or any other fine.

However the letter says he would be referred to the court and prosecutor office if any future complain surface.

I don’t think this is a smart statement to make if there is any future problem then the media commission should pick it and resolve it, just like this time. If a journalist is critical he shouldn’t be referred to the court. The commission job is not only to handle soft cases and use the court and prosecutor as a threat.

The letter also doesn’t mention of the five days detention. I think the commission, if it was truly an independent one, should have condemned the detention and should have directed NDS to leave kamran alone.

For a month NDS was spying on kamran and radio salam watandar we brought this issue several times to the attention of the commission and ministry of information and culture but nothing was done about it. journalists shouldn’t be chased and intimidated while conducting their professional work, as a matter of fact everybody has the right to privacy and NDS shouldn’t intrude, aggressively, into public privacy.

We have friends in the parliament, and we have many friends of friends. I think we should bring the media situation to their attention.

I think we should bring kamran’s issue in the general context of free expression to the parliament.

The government has been constantly violating the right to free expression, other cases include the cabinet approved media regulation. According to the civil servant media regulation, government employees are not allowed to talk with media that include, teachers, all civil and military personnel; and interviews in school and universities are ban. Government is basically forbidding hundreds of thousands of people if not millions of free expression. They can’t talk about their work and the incredible corruption surrounding it.

The ministry of information and culture issues letters from time to time telling media how to cover certain incidents. For example media has been told to respect leaders of Islamic republic of Iran and use a careful language when talking about their politics. Why is NDS not taking the minister letter serious, promoting the interests of another country based on their request can fall very good another the category of espionage.