DC Week (7 of 8): Meet the Ambassadors

Wow! I'm amazed that Javier the Intern found this spinning globe for us!

Today, we are going to list 20 ambassadors representing their respective nations in Washington, D.C. (between our two blogs) We must apologize to the likes of Iraqi ambassador Faiy Lukman and Finnish ambassador Ritav Koukku-Ronde for not finding a slot for them.

And, on our sister blog, we will name ten other ten ambassadors, including Dutch ambassador Rudolf Bekink, who we mentioned on this blog last week.

On our sister blog, we also jokingly suggested that Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va) meet with Turkish ambassador Namik Tan (pictured top) for lunch at Ezme, a Turkish restaurant in Washington, D.C. This is the link for that particular entry:
http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/2013/10/dc-week-teaser-perhaps-cong-morgan.html

http://ezmedc.com/

The joke was that with a government shutdown, perhaps members of Congress could engage in some activities they never can while working on Capitol Hill. But, as it turns, both the House and Senate members are burning the proverbial midnight oil.

The ambassador pictured below is Jan Mattysen, the Belgian ambassador to the United States. We had a coin flip conducted by Javier the Intern and as a result we chose him over Bulgarian ambassador Elena Poptodorova for the below image.

For the daily goings-on in the diplomat circles, we highly recommend "The Washington Diplomat." http://www.washdiplomat.com/

And we learned from The Washingtonian magazine several months ago that Roble Olhaye of the northwest African country of Djibouti is the longest serving diplomat in the nation's capital.

Here is the list, we have put the serve they started their Washington missions in parantheses:

1. Turkey, Namik Tan, (2010)

2. Slovenia, Bozo Cerar (2013)

3. Israel, Michael Oren, (2009): Oren was actually born in New York.

4. Czech Rep., Petr Gandalovic (2005)

5. Djibouti, Roble Olhaye, (1988)

6. Belgium, Jan Matthysen (2009)

7. Bulgaria, Elena Poptodorva (2010)

8. Egypt, Mohamed M. Tawfik (2012)

9. Azerbaijan, Elin Suleymanov (2006)

10. Mexico, Eduardo Medina-Mora (2007)

http://vasington.be.mfa.gov.tr/

http://www.azembassy.us/

http://74.81.82.58/~bulgaria/

http://www.diplobel.us/

7 Words in Turkish (5 of 7): Shark

Though Shark Week on the Discovery Channel has passed us by, we have the Turkish word for shark for you today. An interesting note is that in Turkish, the word for dog 'kopek' and the word for fish 'balik' are combing together for this word. (Just last week, a 14-foot, 700-pound tiger was caught off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in America.)

So, the Turkish word for shark is kopekbaligi, or shark=kopekbaligi.

SIDEBAR ONE: We thought it was interesting when we found out that the embassy for Azerbaijan in Washington, DC, has a Facebook page, but the Canadian embassy does not! Gary Doer is the Canadian ambassador to the United States; Elin Suleymanov is Baku's man in DC.

SIDEBAR TWO: As someone who has read Dale Carnegie's classic self-help book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," in order to overcome my personal insecurities, it is refreshing to hear a different take from the American comic/actor/talk show host Marc Maron, who told "Rolling Stone magazine" the following: "Bitterness is a sure fire way to ruin your career. I've pissed off Adam Sandler. I've pissed off Jon Stewart. I've been ruse to people I've been jealous of."

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com

http://www.azembassy.us

http://www.wtfpod.com (Marc Maron)

Return of Friday Night Tweets: All Things Washington D.C.

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, South Africa and India. Tonight, if you only learn one thing from blog hopping, we hope that you take away this fact: Elin Suleymanov, we hope we spelled his name right, is the Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States.

Embassies were the focus of one tweet tonight, while others dealt with political issues du jour. It should also be pointed that unlike the web site for the Roanoke Tea Party (sorry, we aren't giving ou their link), which actually attacked Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia (?!), we are being nice to Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va), even though all of us here have voted for Barack Obama four times each.

Here are eight tweets which have been posted in the last 24 hours:

1. WNYC @ WNYC (NPR station in New York): Does NYC's density help protect elderly who live alone from dying in heat waves?

2. The Hill @TheHill, which is a DC-based newspaper covering Capitol Hill: "U.S. to reopen 18 of 19 embassies that were closed to terror threats. (Yemen is the lone American embassy which is not re-opening).

3. Politico @politico: "One take away from Obama's press conference. He doesn't like Vladamir Putin, not one bit."

4. The Vancouver Sun @VancouverSun: "Gay Russians seeking refuge in Canada to escape homophobic news laws."

5. Mormon Democrats @MormonDems: "#LiberalsGetUpsetWhen Republicans side with the 3 % of climate scientists who don't think #globalwarming is a problem."

6. Carson Daly @CarsonDaly: "And the Emmy goes to...........Jon Voight for Ray Donovan #wordscomingsoon"

7. Katrina vanden Heuvel @KatrinaNation: "A party that defies demographic reality, grounded in white resentment, may well doom itself to permanent minority-dom or political suicide. (Katrina is the managing editor of the liberal magazine "The Nation," pictured center. The publication has made national news for its spat with Wal-Mart over workers' wages).

8. Morgan Griffith @RepMGriffith: "Ok, Mr. President, show me the "dishes!" Show me the FISA court opinions, etc., so we can have the discussion you invited in your press conference." (Cong. Griffith is pictured bottom, he was previously the Republican leader in Virginia's House of Delegates).

For more tweets from the night go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


Other Links:

http://www.azembassy.us/3/33.html

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.utahdemocrats.org/

http://morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://www.thenation.com/