FIJI
Mr. Akuila
Kamanalagi Vuira, First Secretary
EMBASSY: 2000 M St NW #700, 20036
TELEPHONE: 202-466-8320
RESIDENCE: 1435 Carrington
Ridge Lane, Vienna, VA 22182
CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES:
FRONTLINEDIPLOMACY
Ambassador of Greece Christos Panagopoulos
FINLAND
BY ROLAND FLAMINI
AMBASSADOR: Kirsti
Helena Kauppi
EMBASSY: 3301 Massachusetts
Abe, 20008
TELEPHONE: 202-298-5800
RESIDENCE: 3001 Woodland
Dr. NW, 20008
FRANCE
AMBASSADOR: Gerard
Roger Araud
Reservoir
Rd NW, 20007
TELEPHONE: 202-944-6000
RESIDENCE: 2221 Kalorama
Rd. NW, 20008
EMBASSY: 4101
GABON
AMBASSADOR: Michael
Moussa-Adamo
Brigitte Moussa-Adamo
EMBASSY: 2034 20th St NW, 20009
TELEPHONE: 202-797-1000
RESIDENCE: 1630 Connecticut
Ave. NW, 20009
SPOUSE:
GAMBIA
AMBASSADOR: Sheikh
Omar Faye
Marie Faye Nee Jobe
EMBASSY: 2233 Wisconsin
Ave NW, 20007
TELEPHONE: 202-785-1379
RESIDENCE: 1941 Westchester
Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20902
SPOUSE:
GEORGIA
AMBASSADOR: Archil
Gegeshidze
Dea Gadua
EMBASSY: 1824 R St NW, 20009
TELEPHONE: 202-387-2390
RESIDENCE: 2807 Chesterfield
Place NW, 20008
SPOUSE:
GERMANY
AMBASSADOR: Hans
Peter Wittig
Huberta von Voss-Wittig
EMBASSY: 4645 Reservoir
Rd NW, 20007
TELEPHONE: 202-298-4000
RESIDENCE: 1800 Foxhall
Rd. NW, 20007
SPOUSE:
T
o have 250,000 refugees arrive in our
country right in the middle of the worst
economic crisis we ever had – you hardly
know what to do,” Greek Ambassador Christos
Panagopoulos observes. “But the European
Union is slow to react to crisis situations, and
this takes collective action. We have a national
action plan, we are willing to take our quotas:
others are not.”
After more than two
years of dealing with the
fallout of his country’s epic
debt crisis, in September
Panagopoulos, 61, faced
a new challenge, but at
least this one doesn’t have
him on the defensive. “We
didn’t create this crisis, and
most of the refugees don’t
want to remain in Greece,”
he says. “The will is there.
There are many stories of
people going out of their
way to help. Faced with
this despicable human
trafficking you can’t think
twice about what you have
to do.”
Meanwhile, the bigger
national problem of
Greece’s failing economy
has entered a new and
perhaps promising phase.
The European Union
and other lenders have
committed $90 billion over three years to meet
the country’s immediate debt requirements and
at the same time boost the economy: $30 billion
will be used to create growth. This, Panagopoulos
says, is a significant shift from the European
lenders’ insistence – especially the Germans
– on an austerity policy as the path to Greece’s
survival.
“Austerity is an ancient Greek word, and its
initial meaning was a very positive one, not to
strangle people” he says. “To close hospitals and
schools I don’t think is austerity. Some reforms
have already taken place. The public sector in
Greece has shrunk by a considerable amount.”
To put the Greek perspective of his nation’s
fiscal woes the ambassador has spent a good
part of his time criss-crossing the country. When
interviewed in September he was planning to
visit the south, and talking of making his first
trip to Alaska to meet the Greek community in
that state. The U.S. is a country he already knew
well both from both college and two earlier
diplomatic appointments. He has a degree from
the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy at Tufts
University; and he had
served as consul and then
consul-general in Boston
from 1983-1989, and later
as consul-general in Los
Angeles from 1994-1999.
Left unsaid most of
the time in his meetings
is the fact that his official,
three-floor residence
on Embassy Row is a
casualty of the financial
crisis. The government
can’t afford much needed
repair and renovation, and
Panagopoulos is living in a
rented house elsewhere.
He finds that “our
American
friends
understand us better than
our European partners in
some cases. If you spend
some time [explaining] they
fully understand what [our]
position is.” He credits the Obama administration
with trying to make the Greek case in Europe.
He just returned from a visit to Greece where
he indulged his passion for water polo (he used
to be a member of the Greek national water
polo team), and reports that record numbers of
tourists visited his country this summer, boosting
the prospects of economic recovery.
One of the toughest challenges has been
battling over Greece’s image with the American
press. “The American media sees part of their
role is to criticize everything,” he says. “But the
whole picture has improved a lot.”
GHANA
AMBASSADOR: Joseph
Henry Smith
Douha Yehia Smith
EMBASSY: 3512 International
SPOUSE:
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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